BLACK-ROBES, 


OR 


SKETCHES 


OF 


MISSIONS  AND  MINISTERS 


IN  THE  WILDERNESS  AND  ON  THE  BORDER. 


BY  VJLX 

J° 

ROBERT  P:*NEVIN. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

J.    B.    LIPPINCOTT    &    CO. 

1872. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1872,  by 

J.    B.    LIPPJNCOTT    &    CO., 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


fLacroft 


Library 


CONTENTS. 


THE  JESUIT. 

PAGE 

I. — The  Priest  and  the  Parson  of  Two  Hundred  Years  Ago    .  7 

II. — The  Missionary  among  the  Savages  of  Superior         .         .  16 
HI. — Marquette,  his  Cotemporaries  and  Successors,  and  what 

they  accomplished        .......  33 

IV. — The  Legend  of  the  Defeat  of  the  Eries      .         .         .         -53 
V.— The  Faith  on  the  Pennsylvania  Border  and  in  the  Valleys 

of  La  Belle  Riviere                                                          .  66 


THE  MORAVIAN. 

I. — The  Moravians  in  Eastern  Pennsylvania    .         .        .        .87 

II.— The  "  Place  of  Hogs"  on  the  Upper  Alleghany          .         .     98 
III.— The  "  Village  of  Peace"  on  the  Beaver      .         .         .         .109 

IV. — The  Journey  through  the  Wilderness          ....  123 

V. — Trouble  at  Work  in  the  Tents  on  the  Muskingum      .         .  136 
VI. — Captain  Pipe  plans  New  Mischief,  and  what  came  of  his 

Schemes       .........  151 

VII. — The  Dispersion  of  the  Congregation ;  its  Restoration,  and 

its  Return  to  the  Muskingum       .         .         .         .  •       .  171 

THE  METHODIST. 

I.— The  Methodist  Preacher  of  the  Border— Nascitur,  non  fit .  185 
II. — The  Arrest,  Awakening,  Conviction,  Conversion,  and  the 

Call  of  the  Preacher 198 

III. — The  Preacher  in  the  Pulpit 210 

IV. — In  the  Saddle  and  on  the  Circuit         .....  230 

V.— The  Cane-Ridge  Revival    . 248 

VI. — Mentionable  Men  among  the  Preachers  of  the  Border      .  265 

(iii) 


iv  CONTENTS. 


THE   PRESBYTERIAN. 

PAGE 

I. — Old  Redstone — its  People  and  its  Presbytery      .         .         .281 

II. — The  Parson  of  Seventy-five  Years  Ago       ....  299 

III.— The  Sabbath-day,  and  how  it  was  sanctified       ,s       .        .  314 

IV.— The  Long  Sabbath,  and  the  Great  Buffalo  Sacrament        .  334 

V.— The  Early  Laborers  in  the  Border  Vineyard       .        .         .348 


THE  JESUIT. 


(5) 


THE    JESUIT. 


THE    PRIEST    AND    THE     PARSON     OF    TWO     HUNDRED 
YEARS    AGO. 

A  TTRIBUTE  the  fact  to  whatever  motive  we 
*^X  please,  accord  to  it  whatever  degree  of  de 
serving,  one  way  and  the  other,  our  several  preju 
dices  may  incline  to,  it  is  nevertheless  indisputable 
that  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  always  moved 
far  in  advance  of  all  other  Christian  denominations 
in  missionary  enterprise.  Inspired  by  a  sublime 
devotion,  the  self-denying  priest  has  never  hesitated 
to  respond  to  a  conviction  of  duty,  nor  paused  to 
consider  the  hinderances  in  the  way  of  its  discharge. 
No'field  of  labor  has  been  so  remote,  no  interven 
ing  stretch  of  wilderness  and  solitude  so  vast,  but 
that  to  attain  the  one,  he  has  bade  willing  defiance 
to  the  toils,  the  trials,  and  the  perils  of  the  other. 
Pestilence  has  not  stayed  him,  famine  has  not  re 
strained  him,  fire  and  sword  have  not  dismayed  him. 
Outstripping  the  march  of  civilization,  distancing 
even  the  enterprise  of  the  few,  made  famous  by  the 

(7)  ' 


8  BLACK-ROBES. 

feat,  who,  led  by  desire  of  traffic,  or  the  love  of 
wild  adventure,  have  accomplished  their  bolder 
advances,  penetrating  far,  over  long-extending 
leagues  of  pathless  way,  into  the  heart  of  savage 
wastes,  he  has  assumed  the  more  marvelous 
achievement,  nor  rested  content  until,  traversing 
the  weary  reaches  between,  of  forest,  plain,  desert, 
and  mountain,  he  has  journeyed  from  sea  to  sea, 
and  made  the  passage  of  a  continent. 

In  1626,  Jean  de  Brebeuf,  of  the  order  of  Jesus, 
starting  from  Quebec,  entered  upon  his  first  mis 
sionary  labor,  fixing  his  station  among  the  Huron 
Indians,  on  the  Canada  shore  of  the  lake  of  that 
name,  nearly  a  thousand  miles  from  the  point  of 
his  embarkation  on  the  St.  Lawrence  River.  Ten 
years  later,  the  exiled  preacher,  Roger  Williams, 
the  foremost  venturer  among  his  Puritan  brethren, 
sought  out  a  scene  for  his  personal  toils — and  for 
a  new  settlement — among  the  Narragansetts  in 
Rhode  Island,  but  the  enterprise  took  him  scarcely 
beyond  sound  of  the  axe  of  the  pioneer  in  the  clear 
ings  on  the  frontier  of  the  Plymouth  settlements. 
In  1648,  John  Eliot,  the  most  noted  of  evangelical 
apostles  among  the  Indians,  officiating  on  a  salary 
of  fifty  pounds  per  annum,  had  extended  his  labors 
into  the  backwoods,  perhaps  half  a  dozen  miles 
outside  of  Boston  harbor.  Seven  years  before,  the 
canoe  that  bore  them  landed  Fathers  Jogues  and 
Raymbault  among  the  Ojibwas,  or  Chippewas,  on 
the  banks  of  the  Saut  Ste.  Marie,  close  upon  the 


THE   JESUIT.  9 

waters  of  Lake  Superior,  midway  almost  between 
shore  and  shore  of  the  opposite  oceans.  Whole 
generations  later,  and  within  memory  of  living 
men,  when  ministers,  under  auspice  of  the  domestic 
missionary  societies,  first  went  out  to  serve  among 
the  mixed  populations,  native  and  imported,  of 
Western  (peninsular)  Michigan,  they  found  the 
orchards,  grown  old  and  crumbled  from  decay, 
which  were  planted  by  the  Jesuit  fathers  nearly  a 
century  and  a  half  before. 

If  a  comparison  be  instituted  between  the  teach 
ings  and  the  preachings  of  the  Papist  and  the  Puri 
tan,  in  the  time  of  which  we  treat,  the  contrast  will 
be  marked,  and  strikingly  at  variance  with  a  pre 
vailing  conviction  respecting  the  fact.  The  instruc 
tions  under  which  the  follower  of  Loyola  entered 
upon  his  work  demanded  an  exclusive  devotion  to 
the  one  specific  object  of  his  errand, — to  proclaim 
Christ  and  his  Cross  to  the  benighted  savages  of 
the  New  World.  The  Christian  virtues  were  to  be 
held  in  strict  observance.  He  was  to  be  meek, 
patient,  forgiving,  temperate,  charitable,  and  of  un 
tiring  affection.  He  was  to  conform,  as  nearly  as 
possible,  to  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  tribes 
among  which  he  might  be  thrown;  loving  them  as 
brothers ;  tendering  a  cheerful  proffer  of  all  cour 
tesies  and  civilities,  even  the  most  trifling;  par 
taking  with  them  of  their  fare, — a  hard  task  for 
graceful  performance,  but  one  claimed  as  a  sacred 
due  of  hospitality, — no  matter  how  rude  or  how  re- 


I0  BLACK-ROBES. 

pulsive  it  might  be ;  all,  that  identifying  himself  with 
them  thus  intimately,  he  might  the  more  readily 
win  them  over  to  the  embrace  of  the  Faith  which 
it  was  his  mission  to  preach. 

The  Puritan,  on  the  other  hand,  took  upon  him 
his  office  independently,  and  in  boasted  contempt 
of  higher  human  authority.  With  the  Bible  for 
his  rule  and  conscience  for  his  guide,  only  to  God 
would  he  hold  himself  accountable.  His  peculiar 
dogmas  regarding  forms  of  belief  and  of  worship, 
of  government  ecclesiastical  and  civil,  and  of  indi 
vidual  conduct,  made  up  mainly  his  religion.  In  his 
preaching  he  preferred  to  discourse  upon  points  of 
doctrine;  to  denounce  the  Divine  Right  of  Bishops; 
to  discuss  the  question  whether  Sanctity  of  Life  is 
Evidence  of  Justification,  or  to  deliver  a  solemn 
protest  against  the  Eating  of  Mince-pies  on  Christ 
mas.  Thus  it  happened  that  while  Roger  Williams 
was  proclaiming  vehemently  against  the  cross  in 
the  English  standard,  to  the  spiritual  edification 
of  his  hearers,  and  while,  with  his  ready  right 
hand,  Endicott  was  defiantly  cutting  it  out,  Father 
Jogues,  a  tortured,  mutilated  prisoner,  far  away  in 
a  camp  of  the  Iroquois,  in  the  fullness  of  a  more 
amiable  zeal,  was  carving  the  same  sacred  symbol, 
and  with  it  tracing  out  the  adorable  name  of  IESUS 
in  the  bark  of  the  trees.  And  so  it  was,  that  while 
the  "Apostle  of  the  Indians"  found  topics  quite  up 
to  his  taste,  for  pulpit  deliveries,  in  such  themes  as 
"  The  Wearing  of  Wigs  and  Long  Hair,"  and  "  The 


THE  JESUIT.  II 

Use  of  Tobacco,"  Charles  Gamier,  the  gentle  disci 
ple  of  Ignatius,  was  proclaiming  the  compassionate 
lessons  of  his  divine  Master  in  his  own  inspired 
utterances ;  preaching  repentance  and  faith  to  the 
Huron  and  the  Iroquois,  and  administering  the 
saving  sacrament  of  baptism  to  his  converts, —  all 
the  while,  and  everywhere,  steadily  pursuing, 
through  hazard  and  through  hardship,  his  ap 
pointed  task ;  that  task  which  was  to  find  its  re 
quital  at  last  in  the  crown  of  martyrdom,  for 
which,  in  his  moods  of  ecstasy,  he  was  used  to 
petition  so  fervently. 

The  religion  of  the  Puritan  may  be  said  to  have 
been  a  religion  of  the  head,  characteristically  cold, 
rigid,  and  vindictive.  Charity  with  him  was  an  un 
familiar  virtue.  His  ministry  was  devoted  to  the 
rooting  out  of  heresies,  and  to  the  instillation  of 
"wholesome  spiritual  doctrine."  The  Law  fur 
nished  him  with  his  texts  and  his  proofs,  rather 
than  the  Gospel,  as  Moses  was  his  master  of  inspi 
ration  rather  than  the  Messiah.  To  keep  a  salutary 
espionage  over  the  consciences  of  his  fellow-com 
municants, — to  disfranchise  Wheelright,  and  to 
banish  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  for  the  very  fault  (none 
else  than  non-conformity)  which  had  made  him 
self  an  exile  from  his  native  land, — was  a  more 
praiseworthy  service  than  would  have  been  the 
conversion  of  a  Mohican  or  a  Wampanoag.  He 
seemed  to  act  upon  the  presumption  that  the  truth 
could  make  its  own  way  among  the  Gentiles,  and 


12  BLACK-ROBES. 

that  the  exclusive  office  of  the  teacher  or  pastor 
was  to  see  that  the  "professor"  lived  up  to  the 
line  of  Congregational  orthodoxy.  His  function 
was  to  call  the  righteous,  not  sinners,  to  repent 
ance.  It  was  nothing  out  of  the  way  that  Parris 
should  take  it  as  worthy  a  heavenly  benediction 
when  he  "preached  and  prayed"  against  deaf  Re 
becca  Nurse,  and  had  her  hanged  by  the  neck,  one 
summer's  day,  till  she  was  dead.  Cotton  Mather 
thought  that  he  was  winning  a  peculiar  claim  to 
celestial  favor  when  he  harangued  the  crowd 
whose  unsahctified  instincts  threatened  to  tempt 
them  to  the  rescue  of  the  condemned  preacher, 
Burroughs,  as  he  stood  on  the  scaffold,  and  with 
a  comfortable  conscience  could  thank  God  "for 
justice,  being  so  far  executed  among  us," — the 
governor  and  the  president  of  Harvard  College 
responding  "  Amen"  to  it, — as  his  miserable  victim 
was  launched,  strangled,  into  eternity. 

The  religion  of  the  Jesuit,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  eminently  a  religion  of  the  heart.  Love  was 
the  cardinal  element  of  his  faith.  Christ,  with  him, 
was  all  and  in  all.  Calvary  was  the  sacred  mount 
ain  to  which  he  turned  for  his  oracles,  rather  than 
Sinai.  The  injunction  of  his  adorable  Lord  he  put 
literally  in  practice, — taking  up  his  cross  and  fol 
lowing  him.  He  never  tarried  to  discuss  mooteJ 
questions  in  theological  science,  receiving  the  dog 
mas  of  his  church  without  cavil,  and  confessing  to 
its  mysteries  dutifully,  satisfied,  as  he  was,  in  the 


THE   JESUIT.  13 

terms  of  old  and  approved  acceptance,  to  under 
stand  as  he  believed,  and  not  to  fetter  and  imperil 
himself  by  assuming  only  to  believe  as  he  under 
stood.  Freed  thus  from  the  necessity  of  lingering 
at  home  to  watch  against  the  upgrowth  of  schism, 
lie  was  at  liberty  to  take  up  the  more  benevolent 
and  consistent  offices  of  his  vocation,  and  where- 
ever  souls  were  to  be  snatched  from  perdition, — 
the  more  distant  and  dangerous,  the  more  inviting 
the  mission, — thither  to  force  his  way,  or — for  with 
his  face  once  set  upon  an  errand  he  never  turned 
back — to  perish  in  the  attempt. 

"O  my  Jesus,"  said  the  pious  Gabriel  Lalle- 
mand,  "it  is  necessary  that  Thy  blood,  shed  for  the 
savages  as  well  as  for  us,  should  be  efficaciously  ap 
plied  to  their  salvation.  It  is  on  this  account  that 
I  desire  to  co-operate  with  Thy  grace,  and  to  im 
molate  myself  for  Thee."  "What  shall  I  render  to 
Thee,  O  my  Lord  Jesus,"  reads  the  vow  of  the 
noble  Jean  de  Brebeuf,  "for  all  that  I  have  received 
from  Thee?  I  will  accept  Thy  chalice;  I  will  call 
upon  Thy  name.  And  now  I  vow,  in  presence  of 
Thine  eternal  Father,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost, — 
before  the  angels,  the  apostles,  and  the  martyrs, — 
that  if,  in  Thy  mercy,  Thou  shalt  ever  offer  unto 
me,  Thy  unworthy  servant,  the  grace  of  martyrdom, 
I  will  not  refuse  it.  From  this  hour  I  offer  unto 
Thee,  with  all  my  will,  O  Thou  my  Jesus,  my  body, 
my  blood,  my  soul,  so  that,  by  Thy  permission,  I 
may  die  for  Thee  who  hast  deigned  to  die  for  me. 


1 4  BLACK-ROBES. 

So,  Lord,  will  I"  accept  Thy  chalice  and  invoke 
Thy  name,  O  Jesus,  Jesus,  Jesus !'' 

This  was  the  spirit  of  the  Jesuit's  devotion,  and 
these  types  of  the  illustrious  company  of  those 
who,  like  Rene  Menard,  Chabanel,  Garreau,  Le 
Maistre,  Du  Poisson,  Antoine  Daniel,  and  their 
fellows,  dedicated  themselves  to  martyrdom,  that 
the  faith  to  which  they  were  plighted,  with  its 
saving  grace,  might  be  implanted  in  the  hearts  of 
the  heathen. 

As  to  the  merits  of  the  one  order  of  these  eccle 
siastical  functionaries,  and  of  the  other,  it  may 
readily  be  conceived  that  a  decided  opinion  pre 
vailed  in  the  minds  of  the  savages.  "You  saw 
me,"  said  one  of  them,  representing  his  people 
before  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  "  long  before 
the  French  did;  yet  neither  you  nor  your  ministers 
ever  spoke  to  me  of  prayer  or  of  the  Great  Spirit. 
They  saw  my  furs  and  my  beaver-skins,  and  they 
thought  of  them  only.  These  were  what  they 
sought.  When  I  brought  them  many  I  was  their 
great  friend.  That  was  all.  On  the  contrary,  one 
day  I  lost  my  way  in  my  canoe,  and  arrived  at  last 
at  an  Algonquin  village,  where  the  Black-Robes 
taught.  I  had  hardly  arrived  when  a  Black-Robe 
came  to  see  me.  I  was  loaded  with  peltries.  The 
French  Black-Robe  disdained  even  to  look  at  them. 
He  spoke  to  me  at  once  of  the  Great  Spirit,  of 
Paradise,  of  Hell,  and  of  the  Prayer  which  is  the 
only  path  to  heaven.  I  heard  him  with  pleasure. 


THE   JESUIT.  15 

At  length  prayer  was  pleasing  to  me.  I  asked  for 
baptism,  and  I  received  it.  Then  I  returned  to  my 
own  country,  and  told  what  had  happened  to  me. 
They  envied  my  happiness, — and  set  out  to  find 
the  Black-Robe,  and  asked  him  to  baptize  them. 
If,  when  you  first  saw  me,  you  had  spoken  to  me 
of  prayer,  I  should  have  had  the  misfortune  to 
learn  to  pray  like  you,  for  I  was  not  able  then  to 
find  out  if  your  prayer  was  good.  But  I  have 
learned  the  prayer  of  the  French.  I  love  it,  and 
will  follow  it  till  the  earth  is  consumed." 

While  the  labors  of  the  early  Catholic  mission 
aries  were  devoted  chiefly  to  the  natives  inhabiting 
the  wildernesses  of  Canada,  they  were  not  so  to 
the  exclusion  of  a  more  extended  exercise.  Their 
enterprise  led  them  beyond  the  boundaries  of  that 
province,  and  brought  them  within  borders  of  a 
strange  land,  which,  lying  south  of  the  chain  of 
lakes,  away  in  the  rear  of  the  Plymouth  settlements, 
reached,  with  its  broad  ranges  of  forest  and  prairie, 
from  the  Alleghany  Mountains  to  the  Mississippi 
River.  It  is  of  their  attempts,  as  the  pioneers  of 
Christianity  in  these  regions, — the  regions  of  "the 
West,"  as  the  term  had  its  application  and  limita 
tion  down  to  within  a  score  or  two  of  years  ago, — 
that  this  sketch  proposes  to  treat. 


II. 

THE  MISSIONARY  AMONG  THE  SAVAGES  OF  SUPERIOR. 

THE  Ottawa,  Menomonee,  Chippewa,  Illinois, 
and  other  Indian  nations  inhabiting  the  regions 
bordering  upon  the  waters  of  Superior  and  Michi 
gan,  formed  part  of  the  great  Algonquin  family, 
which,  having  its  connecting  links  through  other 
intermediate  tribes,  extended  along  the  line  of  lakes 
to  the  eastern  seaboard,  including  and  terminating 
with  the  powerful  clans  of  the  Abenakis  in  Maine. 
Within  this  belt  of  territory,  and  edging  upon  the 
lake  which  bears  their  name,  lay  the  possessions 
of  the  Hurons  or  Wyandots,  a  people  deriving 
their  lineage  and  language  from  the  Iroquois,  but 
bound  to  the  Algonquins,  as  was  inevitable  from 
their  geographical  position,  by  the  more  reliable 
ties  of  sympathy  and  interest. 

Voyages  for  the  purposes  of  trade  were  common 
between  the  Ottawas  and  the  other  kindred  tribes 
of  the  West,  and  their  allies,  the  Hurons,  of  the 
East.  Straggling  parties  would  make  the  excur 
sion  at  almost  any  season  of  the  year,  except, 
perhaps,  in  the  dead  of  winter;  but  the  great  tours 
happened  more  rarely,  and  were  undertaken  when 
the  months  were  propitious,  offering  fain  skies,  a 
(16) 


THE   JESUIT.  17 

genial  atmosphere,  open  water,  and  the  promise  of 
supplies,  in  the  game  and  the  growth  of  the  woods, 
for  subsistence  on  the  way.  From  sixty  to  a  hun 
dred  or  more  canoes  would  gather  at  some  con 
venient  harbor  on  Green  Bay,  or  on  the  Saut  Ste. 
Marie,  into  which  would  be  packed  the  cargoes  of 
peltries  and  copper,  their  chief  articles  of  export, 
when  the  flotilla,  manned  with  some  five  persons 
to  each  bark,  forming  altogether  quite  a  numer 
ous  party,  would  start  upon  their  voyage.  After 
the  Old  World  had  sent  over  its  colonies  to  the 
New,  and  the  settlements  that  sprang  up  on  the 
seacoast  and  along  the  rivers  began  to  exhibit  their 
superior  attractions,  these  voyages  were  continued 
farther  down  the  St.  Lawrence,  until  at  length 
Quebec,  the  frontier  town  of  the  French,  became 
the  terminus  of  the  trade.  Here  the  native  foresters 
could  supply  themselves  at  a  cheap  rate,  according 
to  their  estimate  of  values,  with  the  foreign  com 
modities  that  suited  their  simple  tastes, — beads,  bits 
of  glass,  ribbons,  rings,  and  the  like, — while  the 
barterers  with  whom  they  dealt  were  disposed  to 
believe  that  they  had  not  been  outbargained  in  the 
furs  and  skins  received  in  exchange. 

While  tarrying  at  port,  social  intercourse  was 
not  neglected  between  dealers  and  customers,  and 
while  the  Frenchman  excited  the  admiration  and 
taxed  the  credulity  of  his  visitor  with  descriptions 
of  the  marvels  of  his  native  land,  the  Indian,  am 
bitious  to  maintain  his  national  importance  as  well, 


1 8  BLACK-ROBES. 

would  reciprocate  with  stories  of  the  wonders  of 
the  distant  interior  where  he  inhabited, — of  its 
mighty  rivers  and  fresh-water  seas,  of  its  illimitable 
prairies,  and  of  the  populous  tribes  that  filled  the 
region.  Tempted  by  these  representations,  Nicolet, 
one  of  the  earliest  and  most  adventurous  pioneers 
of  New  France,  determined  upon  a  voyage  of  ex 
ploration.  A  ready  familiarity  with  the  Algonquin 
tongue  qualified  him  peculiarly  for  the  undertaking. 
He  made  the  expedition,  visiting  the  "Sea  Tribe," 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Green  Bay,  and  having 
returned,  offered  his  own  testimony  in  confirmation 
of  the  statements  made  by  the  native  traders. 

Among  the  national  festivals  of  the  Algonquins 
was  one  of  peculiar  solemnity,  entitled  the  Feast 
of  the  Dead,  recurring,  periodically,  every  tenth 
year,  and  held  at  some  chosen  locality  in  the 
country  of  the  Hurons.  On  these  events,  delega 
tions  from  all  the  tribes,  far  and  near,  were  accus 
tomed  to  assemble,  bearing  with  them  the  bones 
of  their  dead  of  the  last  decade,  dug  from  their 
graves,  and  brought  for  final  sepulture  in  the  one 
common  depository  consecrated  to  that  use,  but 
more  particularly  attracted,  no  doubt,  by  the  feasts, 
the  songs  and  dances,  the  games,  and  the  torch 
light  processions  which  were  the  ceremonial  accom 
paniments  of  the  occasion.  The  period  for  a 
return  of  this  festival  happened  in  1641,  and  was 
attended,  among  the  rest,  by  a  representation  of 
Chippewas  from  the  Saut  Ste.  Marie. 


THE   JESUIT.  I9 

The  Jesuit  missionaries  were  not  slow  to  take 
advantage  of  so  promising  an  opportunity  to  urge 
the  claims  of  the  Faith  upon  these  strange  barba 
rians.  So  eloquently  did  they  press  their  appeals, 
and  such  was  their  gentle  and  winning  manner,  that 
they  found  favor  in  the  eyes  of  the  savages,  who 
made  earnest  entreaty  that  some  of  their  number 
should  accompany  them  in  the  backward  voyage 
to  their  lodges  in  the  far  land.  Ever  since  the  re 
turn  of  Nicolet,  several  years  previously,  the  good 
fathers  had  contemplated  the  establishment  of  a 
mission  in  that  quarter,  and  now  that  Providence 
had  opened  a  way,  they  promptly  and  thankfully 
accepted  the  invitation.  Preliminarily  to  a  positive 
occupation  of  the  ground,  Fathers  Jogues  and 
Raymbault  were  appointed  to  undertake  the  jour 
ney,  explore  the  country,  and  fix  upon  a  station. 
Coasting  Lake  Huron  in  their  canoes,  after  a  voyage 
of  seventeen  days,  made  peculiarly  pleasurable  by 
the  charming  scenery  that  skirted  their  progress, 
and  the  genial  summer  atmosphere,  redolent  with 
the  rich  balm  of  pines,  through  which  they  floated, 
they  arrived  on  the  4th  of  July  at  the  Saut,  to  be 
met  with  the  hearty  welcome  of  two  thousand 
Indians. 

The  wonders  narrated  by  the  old  traders  at 
Quebec  were  repeated.  The  missionaries  were 
told  of  the  great  plains  that  stretched  south  and 
west,  away  from  the  lakes,  and  of  the  populous 
tribes — the  Miamis,  the  Sacs  and  Foxes,  the 


20  BLACK-ROBES. 

Kickapoos,  and  the  Pottawotamies  —  by  which 
they  were  inhabited.  Rumors,  too,  were  rehearsed 
of  vaster  regions  lying  still  farther  beyond;  of  the 
river  of  rivers, — the  MESIPI  they  called  it, — that 
had  its  broad  course  there,  and  of  the  Nadowessi, 
mighty  and  terrible,  a  nation  of  hunters  and  of  a 
thousand  warriors,  that  occupied  the  land.  The 
missionaries  were  rilled  with  wonder  at  the  recital. 
Their  hearts  overflowed  with  compassion  for  the 
multitudes  living  and  perishing  thus  in  ignorance, 
and  instantly  would  they  have  committed  them 
selves  to  the  work  of  their  enlightenment,  only 
that,  as  yet,  the  laborers  were  too  few  in  the  field 
of  the  Hurons,  and  the  successes  established  there, 
through  so  much  toil,  too  precious,  to  allow  of  the 
risk  to  the  spiritual  perseverance  of  the  newly  elect, 
that  might  ensue  upon  their  withdrawal.  But  there 
was  to  be  no  final  abandonment  of  the  ground. 
They  tarried  for  some  days,  sharing  the  hospitali 
ties  of  their  Chippewa  friends,  planted  a  cross  on 
the  site  near  the  river  where  now  stands  the  Cathe 
dral  of  St.  Mary,  as  the  distinguishing  emblem  of 
their  creed,  and  for  evidence  to  such  as  might 
follow  that  they  had  been  before,  and  were  entitled 
to  come  again,  to  hold  and  to  possess  for  the 
French  and  for  the  Faith,  and  then,  launching  their 
canoes,  they  glided  out  into  the  rapids  of  the  Ste. 
Marie  and  floated  away  on  their  homeward-bound 
voyage.  They  never  returned.  Raymbault  died, 
perishing  from  exposure.  Jogues  followed  ulti- 


THE  JESUIT.  21 

mately,  hurried  to  his  reward  by  the  murderous 
blow  of  an  Iroquois  assassin. 

A  party  of  Ottowas,  under  guidance  of  a  pair  of 
wandering  traders,  who,  in  pursuit  of  their  calling, 
some  two  years  before  had  strayed  upon  them, 
visited  the  Hurons  in  1656,  and  made  request  fora 
Black-Robe  to  join  them  on  their  return.  Two  of 
the  fathers,  Leonard  Garreau  and  Gabriel  Druil- 
letes, — that  man  of  "  incomparable  charity," — were 
accordingly  commissioned  for  that  purpose.  Upon 
starting  they  took  with  them  a  company  of  French 
men,  with  the  view  of  planting  a  white  settlement 
among  the  natives  at  the  Saut.  The  attending 
Frenchmen,  soon  wearying  of  the  society  of  their 
savage  co-voyageurs,  and  perhaps  not  uninfluenced 
by  a  regard  for  their  personal  safety,  withdrew  in 
a  body  from  the  enterprise.  The  missionaries  were 
not  to  be  deterred  by  the  spiritless  example  of  the 
deserters,  but  manfully  continued  their  advance. 
Paddling  their  way  against  the  tide  of  the  river, 
they  had  proceeded  as  far  as  the  island  of  Mon 
treal,  when  they  were  suddenly  attacked  by  a  party 
of  Iroquois,  lurking  secretly  in  await  for  them. 
Garreau  fell  fatally  wounded  under  the  first  fire. 
The  Ottowas  deserted  their  canoes  and  took  to  the 
shore.  Here,  gathering  behind  defenses  hastily 
thrown  up,  they  sheltered  themselves  until  escape 
was  practicable,  when  they  stole  away,  abandoning 
Druilletes,  whom  they  would  not  allow  to  go 
with  them,  to  whatever  fate  might  overtake  him. 


22  BLACK-ROBES. 

But  when  the  Jesuit  resolved  he  accomplished. 
In  his  lexicon  there  was  no  such  word  as  fail. 
Did  persecution,  armed  with  tortures,  interpose  to 
prevent  him  ?  He  might  writhe  under  its  inflictions, 
but  he  would  not  be  hindered.  Did  certain  death 
lie  visibly  before  him  in  the  way  ?  No  matter  to 
the  devotee  whose  daily  invocation  was  that  he 
might  be  found  worthy,  if  the  reward  were  not 
beyond  his  desert,  to  win  the  crown  of  martyrdom. 

The  establishment  of  the  Saut  Ste.  Marie  mis 
sion  was  deferred,  but  not  abandoned,  because  of 
the  disaster  at  Montreal  Island.  In  1660  another 
trading  fleet  of  sixty  canoes,  laden  with  the  ordi 
nary  freightage,  arrived  from  Superior  at  Quebec. 
Three  hundred  Ottowas  manned  the  expedition. 
They  reiterated  the  request  which  had  been  urged 
by  their  brethren  four  years  before,  that  a  servant 
of  the  "  God  of  the  Prayer"  should  go  back  with 
them  on  their  return.  The  Superior,  Father  Lalle- 
mand,  listened  to  their  prayer,  and  cast  his  eyes 
around  to  find  the  fitting  candidate  for  the  em 
bassy.  Among  the  enlisted  in  the  sacerdotal  ser 
vice  was  a  veteran,  who,  in  earlier  years,  had  toiled 
with  Brebeuf,  Jo*gues,  Gamier,  and  Bressani,  of 
saintly  remembrance,  and  participated  in  all  their 
trying  experiences,  save  only  the  last,  by  which 
their  earthly  connection  had  been  severed. '  Hard 
service  had  done  its  equal  share  with  the  frosts  of 
fifty-six  winters  to  whiten  his  hair,  and  the  keen- 
edged  weapons  of  his  enemies  had  left  their  deeper 


THE   JESUIT.  23 

grooves  than  the  well-marked  furrows  of  time,  on 
his  cheek.  Sixteen  years'  devotion  to  it  had  not 
diminished  his  ardor  in  the  cause  to  which  he  was 
plighted.  His  physical  frame,  constitutionally 
delicate,  would  have  rendered  him  incompetent  for 
missionary  duty,  save  that  its  energies,  through  a 
severe  and  uninterrupted  process  of  discipline,  had 
been  trained  to  extraordinary  endurance.  His  man 
ners  were  those  of  a  rarely  accomplished,  highly 
polished  Christian  gentleman.  He  was  zealous  in 
his  Master's  cause,  but  his  zeal  was  of  a  temperate 
type,  kept  evenly  quick  and  warm  by  the  ""live 
coals,"  rather  than  stimulatively  ardent  by  the  fitful- 
flashes  from  off  the  altar. 

Rene  Menard  was  the  man  for  the  post.  If  the 
Superior,  after  having  indicated  his  choice,  hesitated 
on  account  of  the  age  and  infirmities  of  the  priest 
to  confirm  it,  "Fear  not,"  said  the  worthy  asso 
ciate  of  the  old  martyrs.  "  He  who  feeds  the  young 
raven,  and  clothes  the  lily  of  the  field,  will  take 
care  of  his  servants."  The  venerable  father  was 
nominated,  and  forthwith  started  upon  the  mission. 

The  savage  traders  had  been  liberal  in  their 
offers  of  kind  treatment.  No  sooner  had  they  got 
fairly  under  way  with  their  fleet,  however,  than  the 
native  treachery  of  their  hearts  began  to  betray 
itself.  Indignities  were  heaped  upon  the  gray- 
headed  priest,  especially  by  Le  Brochet,  a  principal 
chief  of  the  party,  whose  example  failed  not  to 
provoke  a  like  behavior  on  the  part  of  his  inferiors. 


24  BLACK-ROBES 

He  was  made  to  perform  their  most  menial  services. 
He  was  compelled  to  toil  at  the  oar  from  dawn  till 
dark,  and  to  contribute  his  more  than  equal  share 
in  the  transportation  of  their  burdens  at  the  port 
ages.  He  was  forbidden-his  accustomed  devotions ; 
made  the  object  of  mockery  and  derision;  robbed 
of  his  breviary,  which  the  ruffianly  wretches  hurled 
into  the  water;  yet  patiently  he  endured  it  all,  "and 
like  a  lamb  dumb  before  his  shearer,  so  opened  he 
not  his  mouth."  Famine  overtook  the  party  on 
its  way,  when  all  were  reduced  to  the  extremity 
of  subsisting  on  berries,  barks,  roots,  acorns,  and 
the  tripe  de  roche,  a  woodland  moss,  gathered  as 
they  might  find  it,  here  and  there,  on  the  rocks. 

Arrived  at  the  Saut  at  last,  the  Indians  cast  the 
unhappy  missionary  ashore,  and  left  him  provision- 
less,  shelterless,  barefooted,  and  with  only  the  tat 
ters  of  his  threadbare  robe  for  protection  against 
the  weather.  Yet  the  soul  of  the  heroic  old  man 
did  not  fail  him.  As  of  wont,  his  daily  orisons 
ascended  to  heaven.  As  of  wont,  his  lips  gave 
breath  to  praise,  the  recesses  of  the  woods  waken 
ing  as  they  had  never  wakened  before,  to  the 
strange  song  of  the  New  Adoration, — the  Salve 
Regina, — and  the  floods  clapping  their  hands  to 
the  glad  music  of  the  Ave  Mans  Stella.  For 
several  days  he  was  reduced  for  sustenance  to 
the  use  of  dry  bones .  crushed  to  a  coarse  powder 
between  stones  and  thus  made  edible.  Some  of 
his  red-skin  companions  at  length  relented,  sought 


THE   JESUIT.  25 

him  out,  and  conducted  him  to  where  their  wig 
wams  were  pitched,  miles  away  at  Keweenaw  Bay. 
Upon  their  extermination  as  a  tribe,  in  1649,  by 
the  Iroquois,  a  crippled  remnant  of  the  Hurons 
took  refuge  with  the  Ottowas.  Ten  years'  exposure 
to  the  old  superstitions  may  have  dimmed,  but  had 
not  obliterated,  the  religious  impressions  of  these 
unfortunate  exiles.  As  soon  as  Father  Rene  ap 
peared  among  them,  these  sheep  of  the  old  flock 
gathered  fondly  about  him,  and  with  the  stray 
wanderers  of  the  scattered  cote  of  St.  Mary's  on 
the  Wye,  he  formed  the  nucleus  of  a  new  fold  at 
St.  Theresa's  Bay, — as  designated  by  him, — on 
Lake  Superior.  Such  was  the  establishment  of 
the  first  permanent  mission  in  the  Far  West.  Me- 
nard  was  not  to  be  allowed,  without  dispute,  to 
administer  to  the  spiritual  wants  of  his  flock.  The 
Ottowa  people,  under  unworthy  example  of  their 
chiefs,  who  were  violent  in  their  opposition  to  the 
faith  of  "the  Prayer,"  drove  the  pious  father  from 
their  cabins.  He  constructed  for  himself  a  rude 
shelter  of  fir-branches,  through  which  the  winds 
had  almost  unobstructed  passage,  and  this  was  his 
lodge  through  the  long,  bitter  months  of  a  north 
ern  winter, — this  his  only  protection  against  its 
storms,  and  snows,  and  cold.  His  labors  were 
limited  to  the  sick  and  equally  suffering  with  him 
self  among  the  unfriendly  tribe,  but  were  not 
without  their  recompense.  Several  baptisms  are 
mentioned  among  the  fruits  of  his  efforts. 


26  BLACK-ROBES. 

In  the  spring,  having  learned  of  a  group  of 
refugee  VVyandots,  inhabiting  an  island  in  Green 
Bay,  he  determined  upon  a  visit  to  that  quarter. 
The  route  was  ascertained  to  be  an  exceedingly 
difficult  and  dangerous  one.  His  friends  advised 
him  against  the  undertaking.  "God  calls  me 
thither,"  he  replied.  "  I  must  go  if  it  cost  me  my 
life."  Embarking  in  a  canoe  accordingly,  attended 
by  his  proved  friend  the  Donne,  John  Guerin, 
together  with  a  small  party  of  Hurons,  he  started 
upon  the  hazardous  voyage.  The  way  was  long, 
following  the  devious  current  of  the  Menomonee, 
and  laborious  from  the  many  crossings  overland 
necessary,  in  order  to  avoid  the  various  rapids  in 
the  river.  Before  having  proceeded  very  far,  the 
Indians,  with  accustomed  infidelity,  deserted  the 
missionaries,  who  with  wonted  perseverance,  how 
ever,  continued  to  press  on.  At  one  of  the  portages, 
Guerin  started  in  advance  of  his  aged  companion. 
The  latter,  with  a  dubious  trail  to  follow,  drifted 
out  of  the  true  course  and  lost  his  way.  Guerin, 
more  fortunate,  made  the  crossing  successfully,  and 
awaited  anxiously  the  arrival  of  the  priest.  He 
never  appeared.  Diligent  search  was  made  for 
him.  The  bag  he'  carried,  his  breviary,  and  por 
tions  of  his  apparel  were  found  long  afterwards  in 
the  huts  of  some  of  the  savages,  but  never  a  trace 
of  the  body  of  the  missionary.  Rene  Menard,  the 
last  surviving  of  the  Fathers  in  the  Faith  who  had 
been  first  to  bear  the  tidings  of  Redemption  to  the 


THE   JESUIT.  27 

barbarians  of  the  New  World,  had  followed,  by  the 
same  path  whither  they  had  gone,  and  the  com 
pany  of  apostles  on  earth  stood  again  complete  as 
the  circle  of  martyrs  in  Paradise. 

But  the  Cross  had  been  planted  in  the  soil  of  the 
tribes  on  the  Great  Lake,  and  it  was  not  to  be 
abandoned.  Claudius  Allouez  was  appointed  to 
fill  the  place  made  vacant  by  the  loss  of  the  ven 
erable  Rene.  He  accepted  the  commission  cheer 
fully,  joined  the  Ottowa  flotilla  at  Montreal,  in  the 
summer  of  1665,  and  by  the  month  of  September 
was  in  his  allotted  field  of  labor.  His  first  tarry- 
ing-point  was  at  the  bay  of  St.  Theresa,  where  he 
was  met  and  welcomed  by  some  of  the  native  con 
verts  of  Menard.  Thence  he  coasted  along  the 
lake,  until,  early  in  October,  he  had  reached  the 
charming  bay  of  Chegoimegon.  Here  he  encoun 
tered  an  assemblage  of  savages,  representing  the 
various  clans  of  Algonquins,  gathered  in  from  their 
several  cantons  along  the  coast,  and  wrought  up  to  a 
high  pitch  of  enthusiasm,  in  view  of  a  contemplated 
descent  upon  the  encampments  of  their  common 
enemy,  the  Sioux.  The  priest  looked  on  with 
feelings  of  painful  regret.  It  was  a  matter  of  prime 
importance  for  his  purpose  that  the  martial  fever 
should  be  quieted,  and,  if  possible,  the  threatened 
warfare  obviated.  While  the  more  youthful  war 
riors,  therefore,  with  their  battle-songs  and  dances, 
were  busy  adding  fuel  to  the  fire  of  excitement, 
the  prudent  missionary  invited  their  elders  apart, 


28  BLACK-ROBES. 

— the  sachems  and  experienced  veterans  of  the 
clans, — and  labored  to  convince  them  of  the  inex 
pediency  of  the  proposed  adventure.  His  counsels 
prevailed,  and  the  undertaking  was  abandoned. 

Allouez  then  built  a  chapel,  on  a  spot  which  he 
designated  as  La  Pointe  du  Saint  Esprit,  and  thus 
prepared  himself  for  the  opening  of  his  work  among 
the  tribes. 

The  difficulties  which  he  had  to  encounter  were 
many,  and  hard  to  overcome.  The  superstitions 
of  the  Indian — dear  to  him  as  the  traditional  in 
heritance  of  his  fathers — were  most  to  his  choice, 
moreover,  because  their  mysteries,  of  a  type  in 
their  sublimation  with  the  real  circumstances  of 
his  life,  lay  within  the  range  and  aptitude  of  his 
unsophisticated  habits  of  thinking.  His  objects 
of  worship  had  to  be  plainly  visible  somehow,  in 
the  shadow  at  least,  if  not  in  the  substance.  The 
idea  of  a  spirit  imperceptible  to  sense,  and  uniden 
tified  with  some  special  feature  or  other  of  nature, 
such  as  the  sun,  the  winds,  the  water,  the  woods, 
was  one  beyond  his  grasp  of  comprehension. 
When  the  missionary,  therefore,  undertook  to  tear 
to  pieces  the  structure  of  the  old  religion,  he  had 
the  prejudices,  firmly  rooted  as  the  growth  of  ages 
in  a  congenial  soil  could  make  them,  to  contend 
against;  while  when,  on  the  other  hand,  he  sought 
to  substitute  a  knowledge  of  the  faith  of  his  Mas 
ter,  he  encountered  the  harder  task  of  attempting 
to  build  up  without  the  material  for  reconstruction, 


THE   JESUIT.  29 

— the  language  of  the  savage  being  destitute  of 
terms  to  represent  the  abstractions  of  his  creed. 

Then  there  were  the  social  and  domestic  usages 
to  correct;  favorite  practices  not  inconsistent  with 
the  native  conception  of  morality,  but  •  scarcely 
comporting  with  the  ethics  of  the  new  doctrine. 
Marriage,  in  its  sacramental  sense,  was  an  unknown 
institution  among  the  people,  Man  and  woman, 
with  perhaps  a  gift  of  wampum  passed  between 
them, — as  a  "consideration"  for  the  longer  or 
shorter  term  of  accommodation  that  might  follow, 
rather  than  as  the  pledge  of  a  permanent  compact, 
— would  take  to  the  same  wigwam,  but  the  relation 
thus  contracted  might  be  dissolved  at  any  time  as 
caprice  decided,  and  either,  or  both,  of  the  parties 
remain  at  liberty  to  enter  into  new  alliances  upon 
the  same  convenient  terms.  When  the  pair  thus 
associating  happened  to  have  outlived  the  ardencies 
of  youth,  they  usually  kept  up  the  companionship 
for  years, — perhaps  for  life;  but  this  fidelity  was 
maintained  from  motives  of  convenience  commonly 
rather  than  from  tenderness  of  attachment,  the 
woman  acting  pretty  much  in  the  capacity  of  slave, 
hoeing  the  corn,  cracking  the  hominy,  and  attend 
ing  generally  to  the  domestic  drudgery,  while  the 
man,  making  his  amusements  his  occupation,  pro 
vided  the  luxuries  of  the  chase  for  the  larder,  or 
"filled  his  red-stone  pipe  for  smoking,"  and  took 
his  ease  in  his  cabin. 

Polygamy,  besides,  was  prevalent.  Indeed,  their 
3* 


3o  BLACK-ROBES. 

customs — and  their  customs  were  their  law — al 
lowed  the  almost  unrestricted  indulgence  of  desire, 
and  their  grossness  in  this  respect  was  so  open,  so 
shameless,  so  abominable,  that  the  very  brutes  that 
roamed  their  forests  were  paragons  of  decency  in 
comparison. 

But  Father  Allouez  did  not  despair  of  his  mission. 
The  chapel  which  he  had  erected,  the  novel  ap 
pointments  of  its  interior,  the  unaccustomed  ser 
vices,  and  the  strange  doctrines  of  the  new  religion, 
all  combined  to  excite  the  curiosity  of  the  natives; 
and  from  far  and  near,  Nepissings  and  Kikapoos, 
Saulteurs  and  Pottawottamies,  they  gathered  in  to 
see  the  Black-Robe,  and  to  listen  to  the  marvelous 
tidings  which  he  proclaimed.  His  attention  being 
invited  to  these  various  tribes,  he  undertook  a  pil 
grimage  through  their  several  territories,  distribut 
ing  his  lessons  of  counsel  and  instruction  in  all 
their  villages.  As  the  fruit  of  his  first  winter's 
labor  he  was  able  to  report  the  baptism  of  eighty- 
four  subjects,  principally  children,  but  including 
several  adults.  Having  continued  at  his  work 
through  two  years,  he  returned  to  Quebec,  tarried 
for  two  days,  reported  to  his  Superior,  laid  in  a 
small  stock  of  such  supplies  as  were  more  press- 
ingly  needed  at  his  Western  post,  engaged  the 
services  of  an  assistant,  Father  Louis  Nicholas,  and 
turned  his  face  again  towards  Chegoimegon. 

In  his  old  field  once  more,  Allouez  applied  him 
self  with  new  industry  to  his  labors.  Missions 


THE   JESUIT.  31 

were  permanently  established  among  the  Ottowas, 
Chippewas,  and  Nepissings.  But  his  efforts  were 
not  restricted  to  these  tribes.  He  established  his 
posts  in  the  communities  of  the  Miamis ;  built  his 
oratories  of  mats  and  bark  among  4:he  Sacs  and 
Winnebagoes ;  and  thus,  season  by  season,  migrated 
from  scene  to  scene,  until  the  news  of  redemption 
had  been  declared  to  twenty-five  tribes,  and  eighty 
souls  had  been  gathered  by  baptism  into  the  fold 
of  Christ.  The  Kiskakons,  as  a  nation,  under  his 
preaching,  adopted  the  faith  of  the  Cross.  From 
Lapointe  Allouez  proceeded  to  Green  Bay,  and  his 
first  mass  being  celebrated  on  the  festival  of  St. 
Francis  Xavier,  the  post  was  designated  by  that 
title.  From  that  point  as  a  centre  he  kept  up  an 
active  intercourse  with  the  various  tribes  of  the 
region,  explained  the  mysteries  of  the  Prayer, 
opened  chapels  for  instruction,  waited  upon  the 
sick,  and  discharged  the  practical  duties  of  his 
office  in  such  a  manner  as  secured  the  confidence 
of  the  natives,  gave  force  to  his  influence,  and 
aided  him  materially  in  the  profitable  prosecution 
of  his  labors.  Hundreds  were  baptized,  including 
chiefs  and  others  of  the  distinguished  among  the 
people,  some  of  whom,  like  Kekakoung,  a  con 
verted  Kiskakon,  became  preachers  themselves  of 
the  creed  of  their  adoption.  Our  Father,  translated 
into  their  tongue,  grew  to  be  the  familiar  prayer 
of  the  wigwam,  and  Kyrie  Eleison  the  accustomed 
chant  at  their  devotions.  Schools  were  instituted, 


32  BLACK-ROBES. 

where  the  children  were  taught  the  form  of  worship, 
and  indoctrinated  in  the  rudimentary  elements  of 
the  Christian  confession. 

After  the  death  of  Marquette,  Allouez,  in  1676, 
went,  under  commission,  to  the  Illinois  tribe,  to 
fill  the  place  of  that  deceased  missionary.  He 
reached  their  territory  in  April,  and  at  once  took 
possession  of  the  quarters  which  had  been  occupied 
by  his  illustrious  predecessor.  Since  Marquette's 
time  the  population,  gathered  in  from  their  tempo 
rary  migrations,  had  multiplied  materially,  so  that 
where  he  had  found  but  one  race  and  seventy-four 
cabins,  his  successor  discovered  three  hundred  and 
fifty-one  lodges,  accommodating  eight  tribes.  On 
the  day  of  the  Feast  of  the  Invention  of  the  Holy 
Cross,  the  missionary  planted  a  model  of  the  em 
blem  appropriate  to  the  day,  twenty-five  feet  high, 
which  continued  to  stand  long  years  afterwards  as 
a  monument  to  his  zeal  and  enterprise.  With  oc 
casional  intervals,  Allouez  remained  with  this  people 
till  1679,  when,  relinquishing  the  charge,  he  re 
turned  to  Mascoutens. 


III. 

MARQUETTE,    HIS    COTEMPORARIES   AND   SUCCESSORS, 
AND   WHAT   THEY   ACCOMPLISHED. 

IN  the  spring  of  1668,  James  Marquette,  accom 
panied  by  Le  Boesme,  a  worthy  brother  of  the 
Order  of  Jesus,  took  boat  at  Quebec  and  launched 
out  upon  the  long  journey  to  the  Northwest. 
After  the  usual  voyage  along  the  romantic  coast 
of  Lake  Huron,  accomplished  without  incident 
worthy  of  mention,  the  reverend  adventurers,  en 
tering  the  Saut  Ste.  Marie,  and  winding  their  course 
amid  the  isles  that  gem  its  channel,  reached  their 
point  of  destination,  and  disembarked  on  its 
southern  shore,  at  the  foot  of  the  rapids.  Here 
they  erected  a  station,  and,  without  delay,  Mar 
quette  commenced  the  exercise  of  his  priestly 
functions.  His  fame  had  preceded  him  in  that 
distant  wilderness,  so  that  the  savages  poured  in 
from  every  quarter  to  hear  him.  The  assemblies 
that  gathered  at  the  summons  for  services  were 
large,  attentive,  and  apparently  interested,  so  that 
sanguine  expectations  were  entertained  of  fruitful 
results  to  his  labor.  But  his  hopes  were  not  to  be 
realized.  Curiosity — their  chief  attracting  motive — 
once  gratified,  his  hearers  gradually  dropped  off", 

(33) 


34 


BLACK-ROBES. 


or,  if  they  lingered,  betrayed  no  evidence  of  any 
impression  that  might  be  regarded  as  profitable  or 
hopeful.  Despairing  of  success,  he  determined  to 
change  his  scene  of  operations,  and  accordingly,  in 
the  early  autumn  of  the  year  following,  removed  to 
the  mission  opened  by  Allouez,  at  Lapointe,  after  a 
weary  and  try  ing  passage  of  thirty  days' continuance, 
made  through  desolate  reaches  of  snow  and  ice. 
The  inhabitants  of  two  of  the  villages  which  were 
planted  in  the  neighborhood,  old  converts  of  the 
Hurons  in  exile,  received  him  kindly.  Long 
estrangement  from  the  influence  of  enlightened 
teachers  had  caused  the  decay  of  religion  among 
them,  and  a  partial  relapse  into  the  old  supersti 
tions  ;  but,  although  not  without  opposition,  es 
pecially  from  the  tribes  of  adjoining  settlements, 
the  lost  ground  was  speedily  recovered. 

Marquette  had  listened  to  the  legends  that  were 
told  of  the  river  of  incgmparable  magnitude  that 
rolled  away  to  the  west,  and  of  the  formidable 
nation  —  the  Dacotahs  —  that  swarmed  the  vast 
lands  beyond.  The  spirit  of  adventure  stirred 
sympathetically  in  his  bosom  with  the  zeal  of  the 
religieuse,  and  he  resolved  that,  so  soon  as  oppor 
tunity  pointed  the  way,  he  would  meet  its  hazards 
and  put  the  rumor  to  the  proof.  The  Winnebagoes, 
P  *ribe  of  the  Dacotahs,  and  the  only  one  east  of  the 
Mississippi,  occupied  the  region  bordering  on  the 
western  extremity  of  Lake  Superior.  As  a  helpful 
preliminary  to  the  grand  project  held  in  view,  the 


THE   JESUIT.  35 

missionary  was  anxious  to  secure  the  friendly  favor 
of  this  people,  and  opened  up  negotiations  which 
he  hoped  would  result  in  an  invitation  to  visit 
them;  but,  when  on  the  eve  of  accomplishment,  his 
plans  were  suddenly  foiled.  « Some  treachery  of  the 
Hurons  offended  their  neighbors,  and  gave  rise  to  a 
war  which  eventuated  in  their  forced  retreat  to  the 
quarter  formerly  occupied  by  them  at  Mackinaw. 
Marquette  was  compelled  to  retire  with  his  friends. 
Here,  amid  the  group  of  cabins  in  the  new  settle 
ment,  he  erected  a  chapel  and  established  the 
mission  of  St.  Ignatius.  But  the  spot  was  a  dreary, 
inhospitable  one,  and  offered  indifferent  prospect 
of  good  to  be  accomplished. 

While  yet  at  Lapointe,  the  eminent  father  had 
taken  advantage  of  the  presence  of  a  prisoner  from 
that  tribe  to  have  himself  instructed  in  the  dialect 
of  the  Illinois.  That  nation,  an  extensive  and 
powerful  one,  occupied  the  country  lying  between 
Lake  Michigan  and  the  Mississippi  River,  contigu 
ous  to  the  territory  of  the  Dacotahs  on  the  west, 
and,  save  by  the  partial  interposition  of  the  Miami 
district,  reaching  between  the  southern  limit  of 
Lake  Michigan  and  Lake  Erie,  by  the  Iroquois  on 
the  east,  both  dreaded  enemies,  between  the  oppo 
site  pressure  of  which  they  were  doomed  to  be 
finally  crushed  out  of  existence.  Defeated  in  his 
original  plan  of  opening  up  a  way  of  approach  to 
the  Dacotahs,  or  Sioux,  through  the  Winnebagoes, 
Marqu  ?tte  determined  to  make  the  trial  by  a  more 


36  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

southerly  route  through  the  territory  of  the  Illinois. 
Accordingly,  as  early  as  was  practicable  in  the 
spring  of  1673,  armed  for  his  only  defense  with 
cross,  beads,  and  breviary,  he  turned  his  face 
towards  the  setting  sun,  and  started  forth  upon  his 
enterprise.  Mascoutens  was  the  first  point  of  attain 
ment  fixed  upon,  but  finding  the  place  deserted,  he 
resumed  his  course,  pushing  westwardly  until 
striking  the  Wisconsin,  he  embarked  upon  its 
waters  in  a  canoe,  and  committing  himself  to  the 
protection  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Immaculate,  com 
menced  his  voyage.  Day  after  day  his  frail  craft 
glided  on  with  the  flow,  of  the  current ;  distance 
after  distance,  traced  lingeringly  along  the  winding 
channel  of  the  stream,  was  measured,  until,  after  a 
week  of  time  and  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles 
of  progress,  on  the  memorable  i/th  of  June  the 
mouth  of  the  tributary  was  reached,  and  the  suc 
cessful  explorer  found  himself  afloat  on  the  broad 
bosom  of  the  Mississippi. 

Upon  his  return  from  that  distinguished  adven 
ture,  instead  of  retracing  his  course  by  the  Wis 
consin,  he  struck  into  the  Illinois,  and  ascended 
that  river  until  having  reached  a  settlement  of  the 
Peorias  he  decided,  at  their  earnest  solicitation,  to 
tarry  a  few  days  in  their  town.  He  next  pro 
ceeded  to  the  Kaskaskias,  another  clan  of  the  Illi 
nois,  who  received  him  with  a  welcome  so  cordial 
that  he  promised,  as  soon  as  possible,  to  revisit 
their  village  and  establish  a  mission  there.  After 


THE   JESUIT.  37 

a  brief  stay  with  this  hospitable  people,  amply  re 
warded  by  the  privilege  of  conferring  the  rite  of 
baptism  upon  a  dying  child,  he  bade  them  an 
affectionate  adieu,  and  having  crossed  the  inter 
vening  prairie,  returned  by  lake  to  Mackinaw. 

The  severe  exposures  to  which  he  had  been  sub 
jected  in  this  expedition  told  seriously  upon  the 
health  of  the  enterprising  missionary.  He  had  been 
attacked  with  dysentery  in  his  travels.  Resisting 
the  remedies  applied  for  its  correction,  the  disease 
assumed  a  chronic  type,  and  was  rapidly  wearing 
away  his  strength.  That  his  end  was  approaching 
was  painfully  evident.  But  the  purpose  upon  which 
he  was  bent  was  not  to  be  thwarted  by  any  hinder- 
ance  short  of  death.  Had  he  not  pledged  himself 
to  the  benighted  Kaskaskian  savages  that  he  would 
return  to  declare  to  them  the  glad  news  of  Re 
demption?  Let  consequences  happen  as  they 
might,  the  promise  must  be  made  good. 

Thirteen  months  after  his  arrival  at  Mackinaw, 
in  the  month  of  October,  suffering  painfully  still 
from  his  malady,  but  with  a  spirit  active  and 
unyielding  as  ever,  he  set  out  upon  the  arduous 
undertaking.  Winter  overtook  him  on  the  way, 
and  impeded  by  the  ice  which  had  closed  up  the 
Chicago  River,  he  was  compelled  to  suspend 
progress,  comforting  himself  as  he  best  could  with 
such  protection  as  a  rude  hut,  put  up  by  his  own 
hands,  might  afford  against  the  inclemencies  of  the 
season.  With  the  opening  of  the  river  in  the  early 

4 


38  BLACK-ROBES. 

spring  he  resumed  his  way,  reaching  his  destina 
tion  at  length  on  the  8th  of  April.  After  having 
spent  some  time  in  passing  from  lodge  to  lodge, 
instructing  the  inmates  separately  in  the  Faith,  he 
invited  them  to  assemble  in  a  body  at  an  appointed 
place,  near  at  hand,  on  the  prairie.  Here  he 
erected  an  altar  to  the  "Unknown  God,"  and 
before  an  eager  audience  of  over  two  thousand 
hearers,  "declared  Him  unto  them." 

At  this  newly-established  mission  Marquette 
continued  his  labors  for  some  two  weeks,  when, 
with  his  health  utterly  shattered,  and  under  a  self- 
conviction  now  that  "  the  time  of  his  departure 
was  at  hand,"  he  decided  to  return  to  Mackinaw, 
that  he  might  die  there,  cheered  in  the  "  putting 
on  of  immortality"  by  the  familiar  presence  of  his 
brethren.  Many  of  the  Indians,  to  whom  he  had 
endeared  himself  by  his  amiable  and  unselfish  ex 
ample,  accompanied  him  on  the  way,  bidding  him 
adieu,  reluctantly  and  with  their  warmest  expres 
sions  of  sympathy,  as,  with  his  pair  of  associates, 
he  took  his  canoe,  launched  from  the  beach,  and 
glided  away  along  the  eastern  and  hitherto  un- 
traversed  coast  of  Lake  Michigan.  As  they  made 
advance  by  day,  he  reclined  painfully,  but  uncom 
plainingly,  in  the  narrow  confinement  of  his  frail 
vessel.  At  night  he  was  carried  ashore  and  laid 
to  rest  on  the  ground,  with  the  moss,  gathered  from 
the  decaying  forest-wood,  for  his  couch,  and  the 
leaves  of  the  living  trees  for  his  covering.  And  so 


THE   JESUIT.  39 

they  journeyed  on.  As  near  high  noon  of  a  beau 
tiful  day  in  May  they  approached  a  river,  which 
empties  about  midway  of  its  length  into  Lake 
Michigan,  he  ordered  his  oarsmen  to  pause,  and 
indicating  an  elevated  spot  on  the  river-shore,  he 
said  that  there  was  to  be  his  grave.  His  com 
panions  urged  him  to  let  them  take  advantage  of 
the  .propitious  weather  and  row  on,  but  he  refused, 
and  was  carried  to  the  land.  "  Say  adieu  to  my 
Superiors,"  he  whispered,  as  they  laid  him  gently 
on  the  ground,  the  dews  of  death  settling  on  his 
brow  the  while.  "  Bid  farewell  to  my  fellow-dis 
ciples  of  the  Faith.  As  for  yourselves,  you  are 
weary — rest;  I  shall  never  forget  you."  Then 
lifting  his  eyes  to  heaven,  he  murmured,  devoutly, 
"  Sustinuit  anima  mea  in  verba  ejus, — Mater  Dei, 
memento  meiT  After  an  hour  of  silent  commu 
nion  with  God,  he  solemnly  repeated  the  Creed, 
thanked  the  Almighty  that  he  was  permitted  to  die 
in  that  distant  solitude,  a  brother  of  the  Order  of 
Jesus,  and  a  victim  of  his  devotion  to  the  Cross. 
Then,  with  the  name  of  his  Redeemer  on  his  lips, 
he  bowed  his  head  and  gave  up  the  ghost.  His 
body  was  buried  as  he  directed, — on  the  bluff  by 
the  shore  of  the  river  that  is  known  by  his  name. 
His  companions  erected  a  rude  cross  over  the  spot 
of  his  interment,  where,  after  a  fervent  appeal  for 
his  saintly  intercession  with  God  in  their  behalf, 
they  left  him  to  his  rest. 

Two  years  later  a  party  of  Kiskakons,  members 


40  BLACK-ROBES. 

of  his  old  charge,  dug  up  the  missionary's  bones, 
and,  joined  on  the  way  by  canoe-loads  of  Iroquois, 
bore  them  with  religious  care  to  the  station  at 
Mackinaw.  Here  they  were  met  by  the  villagers 
of  the  place,  led  in  a  body  by  the  priests  Pierson 
and  Nouvel,  who,  to  the  chant  of  De  Profundis, 
landed  the  remains,  and  with  becoming  ceremony 
bore  them  to  the  chapel  for  final  burial.  Gabriel 
Richard,  a  Sulpitian,  stationed  long  years  after 
wards  at  Detroit,  who  was  a  deputy  to  Congress, 
and  who  enjoys  the  higher  reputation  of  having 
established  the  first  printing-press  in  Michigan, 
visiting  the  locality  where  Marquette  had  died,  and 
where  he  presumed  his  relics  still  to  be,  raised  on 
the  spot  a  wooden  cross,  and  with  his  penknife 
carved  upon  it  the  inscription, — 

"FR.  JH.  MARQUET 
Died  here  9th  May,  1675." 

This  is  the  only  monument  which  has  ever  been 
reared  to  his  memory;  but  the  fame  of  his  name 
cannot  perish  from  history,  nor  the  renown  of  his 
sanctity  from  the  traditions  of  the  faith  which  he 
so  nobly  exemplified  and  so  brilliantly  adorned. 

Father  Druilletes,  a  veteran  apostle  of  the  Jesu 
its,  stands  conspicuous  among  the  distinguished 
missionaries  of  the  Northwest.  He  enjoyed  a 
special  reputation  because  of  the  marked  sanctity 
of  his  life.  During  the  prevalence  of  an  epidemic 
among  the  Indians,  miraculous  cures  were  accred- 


THE   JESUIT.  4I 

ited  to  him,  which  at  once  established  for  him  a 
name  and  an  authority  highly  potent  and  influen 
tial.  Under  his  administration  the  Indians  of  the 
Ste.  Marie  were,  as  a  nation,  converted  to  Chris 
tianity.  The  decree  enunciatory  of  this  revolution 
in  their  form  of  faith  was  issued  on  the  nth  of 
October,  1670.  "The  God  of  the  Prayer,"  said 
the  declaration,  "is  the  Master  of  life;"  and  the 
young  men,  walking  the  streets  of  the  village,  pro 
claimed,  "The  Saut  prays;  the  Saut  is  Christian." 
A  twelvemonth's  service  was  rewarded  with  the 
baptism  of  three  hundred  subjects.  His  miracu 
lous  power  operated  materially  in  his  favor.  Very 
many,  influenced  by  that  distinguishing  proof  of 
more  than  common  virtue,  were  led  to  conviction. 
Polygamy  was  renounced ;  other  depraved  vices 
were  abandoned;  the  medicine-men  were  repudi 
ated;  the  children  were,  brought  to  receive  the 
benediction  of  the  priests;  the  first  fruits  of  their 
gathering  were  laid  at  the  altar  of  the  New  God ; 
and  when  starting  upon  the  war-path, — that  emer 
gency  which,  in  view  of  its  hazardous  contingencies, 
is  the  best  test  of  true  religious  conviction, — their 
prayers  were  now  addressed  to  the  Divinity  of  the 
Black-Robe. 

A  party  of  Sioux  came  to  the  Saut,  in  1674,  to 
negotiate  a  peace  with  the  Algonquins  at  that 
place.  At  a  council  held  at  the  mission-house  to 
discuss  the  measures  in  dispute  between  the  tribes, 
a  member  of  the  conference,  becoming  excited, 
4* 


42  BLACK-ROBES. 

sprang  up,  drew  his  knife,  and  brandished  it  defi 
antly  in  the  face  of  a  Dacotah.  Angered  at  the 
outrage,  the  Sioux  leaped  to  his  feet,  drew  a  blade 
from  his  hair, — the  usual  place  of  carrying  that 
weapon, — shouted  his  war-cry,  which  immediately 
called  his  clansmen  about  him,  rushed  upon  the 
Algonquins  and  drove  them  from  the  house.  The 
expelled  party  retaliated  by  setting  the  building 
on  fire.  The  Sioux  ambassadors  were  all  burned 
to  death.  This  was  a  severe  blow  to  the  missionary. 
His  chapel  and  his  home  were  reduced  to  ashes. 
The  Dacotahs  were  enraged,  the  Algonquins  ex 
posed  to  continual  chastisements  from  their  ene 
mies,  so  that  betwixt  the  aggressions  of  the  one 
and  the  reprisals  of  the  other  there  was  little  space 
left  for  the  cultivation  of  spiritual  grace.  But 
Druilletes  continued  at  his  work,  not  without  profit, 
until,  after  a  long  and  faithful  service,  "broken  by 
age,  hardship,  and  infirmity,"  he  returned  to  Que 
bec,  where  a  few  months  afterwards  he  died. 

During  a  suspension  of  the  labors  of  Allouez 
among  the  Illinois,  brought  about  by  the  visit  of 
La  Salle,  who  entertained  little  regard  for  his  order, 
and  less  for  this  particular  brother  of  the  Jesuits, 
Fathers  Gabriel  de  la  Ribourde,  Zenobfus  Membre, 
and  Louis  Hen-nepin  of  the  Recollects,  who  had 
accompanied  the  celebrated  explorer  on  his  expe 
dition,  opened  a  mission,  in  1679,  at  Peoria.  They 
vvere  anxious  to  acquire  the  language  of  the  natives, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  as  far  as  possible,  to  pro- 


THE   JESUIT.  43 

mote  the  spiritual  aim  of  their  mission.  For  both 
these  purposes,  having  been  adopted  into  the  fami 
lies  of  two  of  the  chiefs,  they  had  every  facility ;  but, 
greatly  to  their  discouragement,  the  dialect  was 
beyond  their  skill  of  acquisition,  and  the  people 
seemed  to  be  wedded  to  their  idols  irreclaimably. 
Baptism  was  administered  to  a  dying  warrior,  but 
almost  before  the  priest  had  retired  from  the  per 
formance  of  the  rite,  the  old  superstition  resumed  its 
sway,  and  the  chieftain  expired  an  apostate  amid 
the  incantations  of  his  own  medicine-men.  Father 
Membre  despaired  utterly.  In  hope  of  accomplish 
ing  some  good,  he  shifted  the  scene  of  his  opera 
tions  to  another  neighborhood,  only  to  meet  with 
like  disappointment.  Still,  he  and  his  colaborers 
toiled  on,  however,  until  hostilities  broke  out  be 
tween  the  Illinois  and  the  Iroquois,  which  resulted 
in  the  dispersion  of  the  former.  The  missionaries, 
left  without  protection,  decided  to  return  to  Green 
Bay.  On  the  way,  encountering  an  accident  as  they 
floated  along  the  Illinois  River,  they  got  ashore, 
two  of  the  party  tarrying  to  repair  a  damage  to  their 
canoe,  while  the  other,  old  Father  Gabriel,  walked 
some  distance  apart  to  repeat  his  breviary.  While 
thus  engaged,  he  was  surprised  by  a  raiding  band 
of  Kikapoos,  and  mercilessly  murdered.  After  a 
fruitless  search  for  him,  his  associates  resumed 
their  voyage,  and  finally  reached  Green  Bay  in 
safety.  Thus  began,  and  so  disastrously  ended, 
the  Mission  of  the  Recollects  among  the  Illinois. 


44  BLACK-ROBES. 

The  Jesuits  determined  to  reoccupy  the  field  from 
which  they  had  retired  in  favor  of  the  Recollects, 
and  accordingly,  in  the  spring  of  1692,  and  in  the 
person  of  Sebastien  Rale,  the  mission  at  Peoria 
was  reopened.  Upon  his  arrival  the  excellent 
father  was  greeted  cordially  by  the  Indians  of  the 
various  villages.  They  attended  worship  respect 
fully;  they  sent  their  children  to  receive  instruc 
tion;  the  Prayer  found  favor  in  their  eyes,  and  the 
morals  taught  in  the  articles  of  the  new  creed  met 
with  undivided  approval, — all  save  the  doctrine,  so 
universally  distasteful,  that  the  man  must  be  the 
husband  of  but  one  wife.  They  would  not  repudi 
ate  polygamy.  Two  years'  toil  was  productive  of 
little  profit,  and  Rale,  abandoning  the  field,  with 
drew  to  his  original  charge  among  the  Abenakis 
in  Main?. 

James  Gravier,  who  had  previously  made  a  pass 
ing  visit  to  the  post,  returned  to  supply  the  vacancy 
created  by  the  retirement  of  Rale.  The  labors  of 
his  predecessors,  although  unsuccessful  on  the 
whole,  had  not  b&~n  expended  entirely  in  vain. 
About  fifty  Peorians  and  Kaskaskias  were  either 
converts  or  favorably  inclined  towards  Christianity, 
but  the  large  majority  were  devoted  to  the  super 
stitions  of  their  fathers.  The  forms  of  chapel- 
service  had  been  maintained  by  the  faithful  with 
due  observance  since  the  departure  of  Rale,  a 
venerable  chief  assuming  the  priestly  vicarship  for 
the  time, — himself  making  the  tour  of  the  village, 


THE  JESUIT.  45 

morning  and  evening,  to  invite  the  attendance  of 
worshipers.  Deprived  of  a  competent  spiritual 
leader,  however,  and  exposed  to  the  active  an 
tagonism  of  the  medicine-men,  there  was  imminent 
risk  of  an  early  relapse  into  heathenism.  This 
native  school  of  prophets  had  witnessed  with  alarm 
the  progress  of  a  confession  which,  once  accepted, 
must  prove  ruinous  to  their  occupation,  and,  un 
happily  countenanced  by  the  licentious  soldiery  of 
the  French  fort  close  by,  were  using  their  best 
endeavors  to  arrest  its  further  advance.  It  was, 
therefore,  with  feeling  of  joyful  gratitude  that  the 
handful  of  persevering  neophytes  hailed  the  arrival 
of  the  missionary.  The  prophets  immediately 
organized  in  array  against  this  their  new  and  for 
midable  adversary.  They  assailed  him  with  mis 
representation,  mockery,  and  maltreatment.  They 
ridiculed  the  ceremonies  of  his  office;  they  charged 
that  his  charities  were  but  mischiefs  in  disguise; 
that  his  rosaries  were  charms  for  pernicious  prac 
tices;  that  the  baptismal  water  was  a  distillation 
of  venom,  which  it  was  death  to  be  bedewed  with, 
and — an  epidemic  having  begun  to  prevail  among 
them — that  he  had  created  the  infection,  relief 
from  which  could  only  be  had  through  his  expul 
sion  from  their  village.  Nevertheless,  the  patient 
but  fearless  father  continued  to  labor  on,  sustained 
by  the  consciousness  of  fulfilling  his  duty,  if  not 
comforted  by  the  results  attending  his  efforts  But 
the  day  of  recompense  was  at  hand. 


46  BLACK-ROBES. 

Michael  Ako,  a  Frenchman,  who  had  served 
with  Hennepin  in  his  Upper  Mississippi  voyage  of 
exploration,  withdrew  from  his  comrades  on  their 
return,  and  retired  to  Peoria,  where  he  remained, 
conducting  a  small  but  lucrative  trade  at  that 
settlement.  He  was  a  man  of  unquestionable 
energy,  but  notoriously  profligate  in  his  habits. 
Among  his  associates  at  the  fort  he  enjoyed  the 
distinction  of  an  intimacy  with  the  chief  of  the 
Kaskaskias.  This  chief  had  a  daughter,  most  at 
tractive,  as  attraction  ran  among  the  dusky  maidens 
of  the  villages,  who,  having  been  reared  under 
training  of  the  priests,  and  in  the  clearer  illumina 
tion  of  the  True  Light  than  was  vouchsafed  to  her 
sisterhood  of  the  clans,  had  knelt  at  the  Cross  and 
offered  her  vows  at  the  shrine  of  the  Beautiful 
Devotion.  The  libertine  Ako  met  the  lovely 
Kaskaskian,  was  captivated  by  her  charms,  and 
solicited  her  hand  in  marriage  of  her  father.  The 
sachem,  gratified  with  the  proposal,  promptly  in 
dicated  his  approval;  but  Mary,  when  the  suit  of 
her  lover  was  preferred,  declined  the  overture.  She 
had  heard  how  the  virgins  of  the  French,  who 
were  ardent  in  the  faith,  were  wont  to  renounce  all 
meaner  attachments,  and  banded  together  in  seclu 
sion  from  the  world,  to  expend  their  lives,  for 
Christ's  sake  and  that  of  the  Blessed  Mother  of 
Purity,  in  works  of  charity  and  mercy.  Stirred  by 
their  generous  example,  she  had  determined  upon 
a  like  dedication  of  herself.  The  father,  angered 


THE   JESUIT.  47 

at  her  refusal,  tore  the  clothing  from  her  person, 
and  drove  her  naked  from  his  lodge  into  the  street. 
Then  convoking  a  council  of  the  chiefs,  he  made 
known  his  grievance,  charged  the  responsibility  of 
it  on  the  French  missionary,  and  asked,  and 
obtained,  an  order  prohibiting  attendance  at  his 
services.  But  the  priest  fearlessly  threw  open  the 
doors  of  his  chapel,  and  the  few  whose  fealty  had 
stood  the  test  of  similar  proscriptions  before,  and 
who  were  not  to  be  intimidated  now,  followed  to 
the  sanctuary  according  to  custom,  in  defiance  of 
the  prohibition.  The  disaffected  then  attempted 
to  blockade  the  approaches  to  the  chapel;  and 
finally,  finding  even  that  expedient  ineffectual,  one 
of  the  leaders  rushed  into  the  building,  brandishing 
his  tomahawk,  and  threatening  death  to  all  unless 
they  instantly  withdrew.  Gravier  stood  firmly  at 
his  post;  not  one  of  his  flock  manifesting  the 
slightest  disposition  to  desert  him,  until  abashed 
by  their  behavior,  the  intruder  had  withdrawn. 
The  garrison  at  the  fort,  instead  of  offering  that 
protection  to  the  missionary  which  the  common 
sympathies  of  race  and  religion  ought  to  have 
commanded,  joined  with  the  savages  in  their  abuse 
and  violence. 

While  the  feud  was  still  raging,  the  chief's 
daughter  herself  interposed,  waited  upon  Father 
Gravier,  and  offered  that  if  the  surrender  might 
quiet  the  disturbance  of  the  people,  she  was  willing, 
with  his  permission,  to  forego  her  choice  and  sub- 


48  BLACK-ROBES. 

mit  to  the  proposed  sacrifice.  "  If  I  consent  to  the 
marriage,"  said  she,  "  my  father  will  listen  to  you, 
and  induce  the  rest  to  do  so.  I  desire  to  please 
God,  and  will  yield  for  love  of  Him."  The  mis 
sionary  gave  his  approval,  and,  "  more  a  victim 
than  a  bride,"  Ako  led  the  Kaskaskian  maiden  to 
the  altar. 

This  episode  in  the  domestic  life  of  the  chief, 
which  threatened  while  it  lasted  the  very  exist 
ence  of  the  mission,  proved,  in  the  end,  the  most 
fortunate  incident  that  could  have  happened.  The 
bride  of  Ako,  a  young  woman  of  more  than  ordi 
nary  force  of  character,  was  conscientious  and 
earnest  in  her  convictions.  The  impressions  which 
had  resulted  in  her  conversion,  while  keenly  defined 
on  the  sensitive  surface,  were  deeply  stamped  as 
well  into  the  very  substance  of  her  heart ;  so  that 
with  more  than  the  enthusiasm,  as  was  natural,  of 
her  priestly  teachers,  she  had  all  of  their  depth  and 
determination  of  feeling.  What  was  denied  to  her 
as  a  novice  in  a  convent,  she  undertook  as  a  wife 
in  a  wigwam,  enforcing  persuasively  the  claims  of 
religion  as  she  had  opportunity.  Ako  was  the 
first  to  succumb  to  her  influence,  and,  from  the 
profligate  that  he  had  been,  was  reformed  into  a 
model  of  piety.  Her  father  followed  next,  and  the 
bitter  agent  of  persecution  became,  like  Saul  of 
Tarsus,  the  vigorous  champion  of  the  faith. 

A  great  feast  was  prepared,  to  which  the  leading 
men  of  the  villages  of  the  clan  were  invited.  The 


THE   JESUIT.  49 

chief  arose  in  their  midst,  and,  expressing  contri 
tion  for  past  offenses,  declared  openly  his  renun 
ciation  of  heathenism,  calling  upon  his  guests  to 
go  and  do  likewise.     While  the  chief  counseled 
the   men,  the   young  wife   exhorted   the  women. 
The   force  of  their  leader's   example,  and  of  his 
daughter's  eloquence,  did  not  fail  of  effect.     Gravier 
devoted  himself  to  the  instruction  of  his  now  willing 
hearers.     Mary,  taking  for  her  themes  the  pictures 
which  the  priests  had  provided,  and  by  which  she 
had  been  taught  herself, — pictures  illustrative  of 
interesting  passages  in  the  life  of  Jesus, — told  over 
the  touching  stories  which  they  represented, — the 
story  of  the  birth  in  the  manger  at  Bethlehem, 
of  the  opening  of  the  eyes  of  the  Blind  Beggar  of 
Jericho,  of  the  raising  of  the  Dead  Man  of  Bethany, 
of  the  Cross,  and  of  the  Resurrection.     Her  clan- 
folk  listened,  wondered,  and   relented.     Men  and 
women  began  to  pray ;  children   laid  aside  their 
implements  of  play,  and,  wandering  by  in  groups, 
sang  the  hymns  which  the  missionary  composed 
for  them,  in  the  streets  of  the  village,  so  that  within 
the  space  of  eight  months  this  gracious  awakening 
resulted  in  the  baptism  of  two  hundred  and  six  souls. 
Gravier  remained  at,  and  in    the  neighborhood 
of,  Peoria    until    1699,  when    he  was    recalled    to 
Mackfnaw.     The  next  year  he  made  the  voyage 
of    the    Mississippi,    following    it   to    its    mouth. 
Thence  he  returned  to  his  station  on  the  Illinois, 
resumed  his  labors,  roused  again,  unluckily,  the 

5 


50  BLACK-ROBES. 

hostility  of  the  medicine-men,  and  in  a  fray  excited 
by  these  antagonists,  received  a  severe  wound,  from 
the  effects  of  which  he  died. 

The  first  attempts  at  the  erection  of  a  mission  in 
Southern  Michigan,  according  to  the  testimony  of 
the  few  of  the  tribe  of  the  Pottawottamies  still  to 
be  found  on  the  spot,  was  made,  perhaps,  as  early 
as  1675.  The  successful  achievement  of  the  pro 
ject  was  accomplished  in  1680.  Father  Allouez, 
in  that  year,  attended  by  Dablon,  after  having 
coasted  Lake  Michigan  from  Green  Bay,  entered 
the  St.  Joseph  River,  so  called  in  honor  of  the 
patron  saint  of  Canada,  and  making  advance  against 
its  tide,  proceeded  until,  some  twenty-five  miles 
(fifty  by  the  river)  from  its  mouth,  he  reached  the 
locality  now  the  seat  of  the  inviting  town  of  Niles. 
About  half  a  mile  up-stream  from  the  heart  of  the 
town — a  narrow  belt  of  boggy  lowland  lying  be 
tween  it  and  the  river — rises  a  semicircular  bluff, 
at  the  base  of  which,  and  through  the  soil  of  the 
marshy  level,  runs  a  brook  which  empties  its  slen 
der  contribution  of  supply  into  the  St.  Joseph.  On 
this  bluff,  up  till  within  twenty-five  years  since,  if 
not  now,  the  traces  were  plainly  distinguishable  of 
a  fortification,  the  cross  planted  at  the  time  of  its 
construction,  and  still  to  be  seen,  in  the  rear  of  it, 
indicating  by  whom,  and  for  what  use,  it  waS  built. 
Here,  conveniently  established  between  an  encamp 
ment  of  Miamis  on  one  side  of  the  river,  and  three 
several  settlements — one  at  Pokegan,  a  second  on 


THE   JESUIT.  51 

the  shores  of  what  are  now  known  as  the  Notre 
Dame  Lakes,  and  the  third  and  principal  one,  close 
by  the  fort — of  the  Pottawottamies  on  the  other, 
Allouez  built  a  chapel  (a  brewery  occupies  the  site 
now),  and  near  by,  a  log  cabin  for  his  own  accommo 
dation.  His  labors  were  carried  on  successfully, and 
without  the  occurrence  of  any  extraordinary  event 
to  invest  them  with  special  interest.  After  a  faith 
ful  service  of  several  years,  he  died  in  the  summer 
of  1690.  His  ashes  repose  in  the  graveyard  of  the 
Catholic  mission  at  Niles.  The  establishment  was 
kept  up,  part  of  the  time  under  the  ministry  of 
Chardon,  "  a  man  wonderful,  in  the  gift  of  tongues, 
speaking  fluently  nearly  all  the  Indian  languages 
of  the  Northwest,"  until  1759.  In  that  year  the 
French  'garrison  of  Fort  St.  Joseph  was  attacked 
by  a  party  of  English  soldiers,  the  engagement  re 
sulting,  after  a  fierce  contest,  in  the  defeat  of  the 
French.  The  survivors  of  the  garrison,  including 
the  priests,  were  carried  away,  prisoners,  to  Quebec. 
The  mission,  thus  violently  dissolved,  was  not  re 
organized  for  nearly  a  hundred  years.  In  1830, 
Father  Stephen  Badin  pitched  his  tent  in  the 
vicinity,  revived  the  faith  among  the  Pottawotta 
mies,  built  a  chapel  on  the  little  St.  Mary's  Lake, 
near  South  Bend,  bought  a  section  of  land,  which, 
conveyed  to  the  Bishop  of  Vincennes,  through  him 
was  dedicated,  in  the  interests  of  education,  to  the 
church,  and  is  now  the  seat  of  that  notable  institu 
tion  of  learning — the  University  of  Notre  Dame. 


52  BLACK-ROBES. 

We  have  noticed  the  labors  of  the  earliest,  and 
most  prominent,  of  the  Jesuit  fathers  concerned  in 
the  leading  missionary  movements  of  the  North 
west.  These  distinguished  pioneers  were  not  left 
to  struggle  alone.  As  the  exigencies  of  service 
called,  willing  hearts  were  ready  to  respond,  and 
recruit  after  recruit  followed  until  the  Black-Robe 
became  a  presence  common  and  familiar  among 
the  tribes  of  the  region.  While  Marest  and  Gui- 
gnas  penetrated  the  vast  wastes  west  of  Lake  Supe 
rior,  and  bordering  on  the  Mississippi,  proclaiming 
redemption  to  the  Sioux,  Mermet  made  his  pil 
grimage  across  the  intervening  prairies,  and  planted 
the  standard  of  faith,  where  a  colony  of  Mascoutens 
had  formed  a  lodgment,  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio. 
While  Louis  Andre  made  his  canoe  his  habitation, 
and  visited,  one  by  one  in  regular  circuit,  the  vil 
lages  clustering  around  Green  Bay,  Aubert  toiled 
amid  the  snow-fields  bordering  upon  the  bound 
aries  of  the  Far  Northwest, — how  faithfully,  and 
at  what  sacrifice,  the  Indians  tarrying  there  to-day 
attest,  as  they  lead  the  visitor  to  an  island  in  the 
Lake  of  the  Woods,  and,  repeating  the  melancholy 
story  of  his  end,  point  out  the  blood-stained  rock 
on  which  he  was  slaughtered. 

Thus  by  the  feet,  the  beautiful  feet  of  them  that 
bring  glad  tidings  of  good  things,  were  borne  the 
messages  of  the  gospel.  Thus  did  the  energetic 
Jesuit  press  his  ministry,  till  not  a  village, — not  a 
camp,  on  plain  or  water-course,  where  flitting  clans- 


THE   JESUIT.  53 

men  pitched  their  tents,  while  through  a  summer's 
noon,  or  a  winter's,  they  followed  the  chase  or 
dipped  their  nets  in  quest  of  food, — not  a  wigwam 
in  all  the  wilderness  was  left  in  which  his  presence 
was  not  known,  and  where  his  spiritual  counsels 
were  not  heard. 


IV. 


THE  LEGEND  OF  THE  DEFEAT  OF  THE  ERIES. 

THAT  portion  of  the  West,  including  the 
meadows  and  uplands  watered  and  drained 
by  the  upper  Ohio  and  its  tributaries,  seems,  down 
to  a  comparatively  recent  date,  to  have  been,  almost 
entirely,  an  uninhabited  waste,  ranged  over,  no 
doubt,  in  their  hunting  tours,  by  bands  of  Indians 
from  the  north,  but  without  a  fixed  population  of 
its  own.  Of  these  game-seeking  adventurers,  those 
that  frequented  the  valleys  and  hills  of  the  Alle- 
ghany  River  were  likely  of  the  Iroquois  tribe,  while 
the  wider  extent  of  territory  lying  to  the  west,  most 
probably,  constituted  the  sporting-ground  of  the 
Eries.  The  settlements  of  the  Iroquois  clustered 
along  the  Mohawk  Valley  and  about  the  several 
lakes,  Oneida,  Onondaga,  Cayuga,  and  Seneca,  in 
New  York,  while  those  of  the  Eries,  beginning 
5* 


54  BLACK-ROBES. 

with  Tu-shu-wa,  which  occupied  the  site  of  the 
present  city  of  Buffalo,  extended  westward  along 
the  whole  length  of  the  southern  shore  of  the  lake 
that  bears  their  name.  The  Eries  were  a  strong, 
proud,  and  warlike  people, — ambitious  to  preserve 
that  eminence  among  the  tribes  which  their  valor 
had  won,  and  which  their  vigilance  thus  far  in  their 
history  had  protected. 

There  is  a  story  told  as  to  how,  at  their  own 
seeking,  the  prowess  of  which  they  boasted  was 
put  to  the  test,  followed  with  the  detail  of  the 
catastrophe,  fearful  and  fatal,  which  attended  the 
experiment,  and  thus  runs  the  legend : 

Daganoweda,  a  wise  man  of  the  Onondaga  na 
tion,  aroused  to  the  conviction  that  the  practice  of 
secession  so  common  among  the  tribes,  where,  at 
pleasure,  whole  clans  were  wont  to  detach  them 
selves  and  seek  out  new  settlements  for  the  plant 
ing  of  new  organizations,  was  the  secret  of  the 
weakness  of  a  people,  set  himself  at  work  not 
merely  to  correct  the  custom,  but  to  carry  out  the 
opposite  theory  naturally  suggested,  and  effect,  if 
possible,  a  general  consolidation  of  the  several 
neighboring  tribes  of  his  region.  He  laid  his 
scheme,  carefully  and  shrewdly  prepared  to  its 
minutest  details,  both  as  touching  the  form  of 
union,  and  the  laws  by  which  its  affairs  should  be 
regulated,  before  some  of  the  leading  minds  of 
the  respective  nations ;  brought  about  a  conven- 


THE   JESUIT.  55 

tion,  on  the  banks  of  the  Ga-nun-ta-a,  or  Onondaga 
Lake,  of  the  prominent  sages  of  each ;  carried 
through  the  project  successfully,  and  effected  the 
erection  of  the  formidable  Confederacy  of  the  Ho- 
de-rro-sau-nee,  or  Five  Nations. 

When  the  tidings  of  this  coalition  was  carried  to 
their  towns,  the  Eries,  or  Sag-a-neh-gi,  became 
alarmed.  Right  confidently,  nay  eagerly,  would 
they  have  taken  to  the  war-path  against  Seneca 
singly,  or  Cayuga,  Onondaga,  Oneida,  or  Mohawk, 
but  the  forces  united  of  the  five,  numbered  an  array 
too  commanding  in  its  proportions  to  be  regarded 
with  feelings  of  indifference.  The  object  of  the 
combination  was  readily  conjectured;  but,  new 
bond  and  all,  were  not  the  Sag-a-neh-gi,  even 
though  numerically  inferior,  still,  in  activity,  skill, 
bravery, — all  the  elements,  indeed,  that  go  to  make 
up  the  finished  warrior, — their  more  than  peers? 
As  a  matter  of  prudent  precaution — for  where  were 
they  left  with  their  proud  prestige  as  Lords  of  the 
Lake  departed  ? — they  decided  to  put  the  question 
to  the  test. 

A  runner  was  dispatched  to  the  Ho-nan-ne-ho- 
onts,  or  Senecas,  the  border  tribe  of  the  confeder 
ates,  with  a  friendly  challenge  to  meet  them  at 
Tu-shu-wa  in  a  friendly  game  of  ball — a  hundred 
chosen  men  against  a  hundred — for  a  wager  of 
such  value  as  might  be  mutually  agreed  upon. 
The  messenger  was  honorably  received  by  the 
Senecas;  the  proposition  laid  before  the  council, 


56  BLACK-ROBES. 

discussed,  voted  upon,  and  rejected.  The  Eries, 
elated  with  this  implied  admission,  as  they  chose 
to  interpret  the  answer,  of  their  superior  prowess, 
renewed  the  challenge.  It  was  again  considered 
by  their  neighbors,  and  again  declined.  When  the 
defi  was  delivered  for  the  third  time,  the  older 
heads  of  the  council  would  have  given  a  final  re 
fusal,  but  the  younger  warriors  began  to  murmur 
at  the  action  of  their  elders.  Who  were  these  vain 
braggarts, — these  burrowers  in  the  banks  of  the 
Great  Lake, — that  they  should  creep  from  their 
holes  to  fling  insolence  in  the  faces  of  the  Warders 
of  the  Threshold  of  the  Long  House  ?  The  de 
liberate  judgment  of  the  counselors  gave'  way  to 
the  pressure.  The  challenge  was  accepted. 

A  hundred  athletes,  of  faultless  proportion,  and 
approved  in  wind  and  limb,  were  selected  for  the 
contest.  Armed,  each  one,  with  his  implement  of 
play, — a  slender  hickory  sapling,  cut  of  suitable 
length,  bowed  at  one  end  like  a  battledoor,  and 
having  the  .hoop  stoutly  laced  athwart-wise  with 
the  dried  and  twisted  sinews  of  the  deer, — they 
formed  into  file,  took  up  their  march,  and  cheered 
by  the  wild  applause  of  their  clansmen  as  they  left, 
were  soon  lost  to  view  in  the  shadows  of  the  forest. 
A  fleet-footed  messenger  was  sent  in  advance  to 
notify  the  Sag-a-neh-gis  of  their  coming.  Arrived 
at  the  spot, — an  open  space  put  carefully  in  order 
for  the  occasion,  close  by  the  village,  and  near  the 
lake, — the  Seneca  champions  produced  their  val- 


THE   JESUIT.  57 

uablos — belts  of  finely-carved  and  polished  wam 
pum,  bracelets  and  rings  of  silver  and  copper, 
moccasins  trimmed  with  crimsoned  moose  hair, 
and  embroidered  with  painted  quills  of  the  porcu 
pine,  shells  of  purple  and  gold,  with  pearls  of  the 
purest  water — and  assorted  them  in  heaps  upon 
the  ground.  The  Eries  produced  their  trinkets 
of  greatest  rarity,  beauty,  and  value,  and  placed 
them  in  corresponding  piles,  side  by  side  with 
the  others. 

The  hour  of  contest  arrived.  The  game  opened 
briskly,  and  was  conducted  with  great  skill  by  both 
parties,  but  resulted  in  the  triumph  of  the  Senecas. 
The  victors  behaved  with  a  modest  propriety 
scarcely  to  be  expected  under  the  circumstances ; 
indulging  in  no  parade  of  exultation,  but  quietly 
collecting  the  trophies  won  in  the  strife,  and  pro 
ceeding  to  re-invest  themselves  in  their  loose  robes, 
laid  aside  while  at  exercise,  preparatory  to  their 
departure.  Nettled  at  the  issue,  and  anxious  to 
win  a  revenge  for  their  discomfiture,  the  Sag-a- 
neh-gis  invited  their  competitors  to  tarry  over 
another  day  and  have  a  new  trial  of  merit  at  a  foot 
race.  The  invitation  was  accepted.  Ten  men 
were  selected  from  each  of  the  parties  by  their 
respective  chieftains,  and  next  morning  were  led  to 
the  course  appointed  for  the  contest.  Again  were 
the  Eries  defeated.  The  chagrin  which  they  natu 
rally  felt  at  the  result  was  materially  heightened 
from  the  fact  that  the  Kaukwas,  a  neighboring 


58  BLACK-ROBES. 

clan  present  as  invited  guests,  were  witnesses  of 
the  failure. 

To  redeem,  if  possible,  their  lost  honors,  a 
wrestling  match  was  proposed,  and  agreed  to,  upon 
the  terms  that  the  successful  champion  in  each 
trial  should  cleave  the  skull  of  his  fallen  adversary, 
and  carry  away  his  scalp,  to  be  worn  in  his  belt  as 
a  trophy  of  the  victory.  The  savage  stipulation 
was  distasteful  to  the  Senecas,  but  to  take  excep 
tion  to  it  would  be  to  expose  themselves  to  the 
charge  of  cowardice, — a  charge  which  native  pride 
could  never  brook ;  they,  therefore,  interposed  no 
objection,  but,  after  consultation,  decided  that  in 
case  of  success  on  their  side,  they  would  retire  from 
the  field  without  inflicting  the  murderous  penalty. 
The  day  following  was  the  time  appointed,  and,  at 
their  invitation,  the  village  of  the  Kaukwas,  some 
eighteen  miles  distant,  the  place  for  the  contest. 
When  the  parties  had  assembled  and  the  signal 
was  given,  a  Seneca  stepped  promptly  into  the 
ring.  He  was  as  promptly  met  by  a  champion  of 
the  Eries.  After  a  short  struggle  the  Sag-a-neh-gi 
was  brought  to  the  ground,  but  the  victorious  Ho- 
nan-ne-ho-ont,  refusing  to  inflict  the  mortal  penalty 
upon  his  prostrate  competitor,  turned  on  his  heel, 
and,  amid  their  hearty  applause,  retired  to  the 
circle  of  his  friends.  The  chief  of  the  Eries  no 
sooner  witnessed  the  movement  than,  with  a 
bound,  he  leaped  to  the  side  of  his  fallen  clans 
man,  and  with  a  blow  of  the  tomahawk  that  buried 


THE  JESUIT.  59 

the  blade  of  the  weapon  to  its  haft  in  his  head,  left 
him  dead  on  the  spot  where  he  had  fallen. 

A  second  and  a  third  encounter  followed  with  a 
like  result,  each  defeated  champion  being  brained 
in  turn,  and  his  lifeless  remains  dragged  from  the 
arena,  to  clear  the  space  for  a  new  contestant  and 
a  fresh  victim  of  sacrifice.  Excitement,  intense  at 
first  among  the  Sag-a-neh-gi,  grew  wilder  and 
fiercer  with  each  succeeding  catastrophe.  Fearful 
of  still  more  fatal  consequences  if  the  dueling  were 
kept  up,  the  leader  of  the  Senecas,  after  the  third 
engagement,  called  his  partisans  around  him,  stated 
his  apprehensions,  and  advised  an  immediate  re 
tirement  from  the  field.  Acting  upon  the  sugges 
tion,  the  force  of  which  was  fully  appreciated,  they 
quietly  fell  back  from  their  position,  till,  without 
awakening  suspicion  as  to  their  intent,  they  had 
gotten  beyond  arrow-flight  of  pursuit,  when,  taking 
to  the  cover  of  the  woods,  they  were  off  at  a  leap, 
and  presently  far  away  on  the  trails  that  led  to 
their  native  lodges.  Taken  by  surprise  at  the 
unexpected  manoeuvre,  and  perhaps  restrained  by 
the  reflection  that,  as  invited  guests,  the  Senecas 
were  honorably  entitled  to  safe  departure,  the  Sag- 
a-neh-gis  did  not  attempt  to  follow,  but  gathering 
up  the  bodies  of  their  slain,  returned  crestfallen 
and  dejected  to  their  wigwams  at  Tu-shu-wa. 

The  result  of  the  contest  was  well  calculated  to 
create  uneasiness  in  the  minds  of  the  Eries.  They 
had  failed,  signally  failed,  in  all  the  exercises — 


60  BLACK-ROBES. 

exercises  of  their  own  choosing — in  which  they 
had  been  engaged.  Their  adversaries  had  proved 
themselves  not  only  men  of  nerve  and  substance, 
but  schooled,  moreover,  to  dexterous  and  vigorous 
action.  On  the  war-path  it  would  be  no  holiday 
pastime  to  come  to  clubs  against  them.  If  so 
much  might  be  argued  of  a  single  member,  what 
was  not  to  be  apprehended  of  the  united  house  of 
the  new  confederacy?  That  hostile  designs  were 
in  reserve,  sooner  or  later,  to  be  put  in  force  against 
the  outside,  unaffiliated  nations  by  the  league,  was 
a  settled  conviction,  for  upon  no  other  argument, 
according  to  savage  ratiocination,  could  the  novel 
and  extraordinary  compact  be  accounted  for.  The 
wise  men  of  the  tribe  took  the  question  into  con 
sideration.  After  due  deliberation  it  was  resolved 
that  to  guard  against  the  contingencies  likely  to 
arise,  it  became  them  to  adopt  decisive  measures, 
and  that  rather  than  await  an  invasion  of  the 
enemy,  it  was  their  surer  policy  themselves  to 
assume  the  aggressive.  The  plan  agreed  upon  was 
to  bring  out  their  whole  force,  make  a  sudden  de 
scent  upon  the  Senecas,  then,  if  successful  in  their 
surprise-assault,  to  advance  against  the  Cayugas, 
and  so  successively  against  the  Onondagas,  Onei- 
das,  and  Mohawks,  until  all  were  annihilated.  The 
scheme  was  bold,  but  if  secretly  and  expeditiously 
dispatched,  entirely  practicable. 

Among  the  women   of  the  tribe   was    one,  a 
childless  widow,  by  parentage  and  early  belonging 


THE   JESUIT.  6 1 

a  Seneca,  but  who,  in  one  of  their  former  forays, 
had  been  captured  by  a  party  of  Eries,'  with  whom 
she  had  since  dwelt  as  the  wife,  while  he  lived,  and 
afterwards  as  the  widow,  of  one  of  their  warriors!" 
New  associations  and  attachments  had  left  her 
content  with  her  captivity,  but  not  to  the  forgetful- 
ness  of  the  old  home  on  the  slopes  of  the  Nun- 
da-war-o-noh-gi  or  of  her  kindred.  When  the 
decision  of  the  council  had  transpired,  unde'r  a 
quick  realization  of  the  fearful  calamity  in  store 
for  her  people,  she  determined  to  interfere  for  its 
prevention.  When  the  darkness  of  night  had 
fairly  settled  over  the  village,  and  its  inhabitants 
were  wrapped  in  slumber,  she  stole  cautiously 
from  her  lodge,  and  wending  her  way  along  the 
irregular  avenues  of  the  town,  soon  found  herself 
beyond  its  limits.  Following  the  course  of  the 
Niagara  River,  she  hurried  on  through  the  gloom 
of.  the  forests,  with  only  such  light  to  guide  her 
steps  as  falling  from  the  stars  dropped  winkingly 
through  the  thick  leaves  overarching  her  path, 
until,  as  the  dawn  peeped  over  the  waters,  she 
found  herself  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Ontario.  Some 
wanderer  early  abroad,  or  perhaps  a  benighted 
hunter  in  the  woods,  had  left  his  canoe,  tied  to  a 
tree,  on  the  margin  of  the  lake.  She  undid  the 
astening,  leaped  into  the  vessel,  and  shoved  out 
into  the  water.  Coasting  the  lake  she  plied  her 
oar  with  unflagging  energy,  and  by  nightfall 
reached  a  settlement  of  the  Senecas  at  the  mouth 
6 


62  BLACK-ROBES. 

of  the  Oswego  River.  She  hastened  to  the  wig 
wam  of  one  of  the  principal  chiefs,  and  there 
unfolded  the  scheme  of  treachery  which-had  been 
"plotted  in  the  councils  of  the  Sag-a-neh-gis. 

Swift-footed  messengers  were  dispatched,  with 
out  delay,  to  carry  the  intelligence  to  the  tribes  of 
the  confederacy.  Speedily,  as  if  borne  on  the 
wings  of  a  bird,  was  the  news  communicated 
through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  The 
fire  was  kindled  on  the  shore  of  the  Onondaga, 
the  great  League-Fire  of  the  Ho-de-san-no-ge-ta, 
the  Custodians  of  the  Council  Brand,  and  at  the 
summons  gathered  in  from  their  remotest  settle 
ments — from  the  meadows  of  the  Mohawk, — from 
the  sylvan  abodes  on  the  Oneida  and  Cayuga — the 
wise  men  and  the  warriors  of  the  Nation.  The 
conference  was  brief.  With  the  prompt  action 
characteristic  of  the  confederates,  it  was  decided 
to  instantly  marshal  their  forces,  move  into  the 
menaced  territory  of  the  Senecas,  and  there  await 
the  invasion  of  the  enemy.  The  march,  five  thou 
sand  men  in  file,  began.  At  Canandaigua  Lake 
report  was  had,  through  their  runners,  that  the 
Eries  had  crossed  the  Genesee,  and  were  rapidly 
moving  eastward.  Unconscious  of  the  betrayal 
of  their  plans,  they  were  pressing  on,  briskly  and 
eagerly,  in  full  confidence  of  success. 

The  armies  met  at  Honeoye,  a  little  lake  at  half 
distance  between  Canandaigua  and  the  Genesee, 
separated  only  by  a  narrow  sluice,  the  bed  of  the 


THE   JESUIT.  63 

streamlet  through  which  the  surplus  water  of  the 
lake  was  discharged.  No  sooner  did  the  Sag-a- 
neh-gis  discover  the  presence  of  their  foe  than, 
with  a  yell  that  pierced  the  forest  to  its  remotest 
solitude,  they  sprang  to  the  conflict.  The  shock 
of  the  onset  was  terrific.  Midway  in  the  channel 
of  the  stream  they  came  together.  Knife  met 
knife  in  the  hand-to-hand  grapple;  their  blades, 
now  lifted  for  the  stroke  flashed  in  the  light,  now 
descended  after  the  fatal  blow,  dripping  with  crim 
son.  The  brook  ran  red  with  blood.  The  con 
federates  could  not  resist  the  impetuous  headway 
of  the  attack.  Inch  by  inch,  until  they  were  forced 
back  some  distance  from  the  bed  of  the  rivulet, 
did  they  retreat;  the  Eries,  encouraged  by  success, 
pushing  forward  with  redoubled  spirit,  a«d  filling 
the  air  with  whoops  of  triumph.  Victory  seemed 
within  grasp  of  the  assailants  when  the  complexion 
of  affairs  experienced  a  change. 

In  arranging  their  plan  of  assault,  the  confeder 
ates  had  detached  from  their  main  body  a  company 
of  a  thousand  youths,  neophytes  as  yet  in  warlike 
service,  who  were  ordered  to  make  a  detour 
through  the  woods,  and,  throwing  themselves  be 
hind  the  enemy,  to  open  an  attack  on  their  rear. 
The  movement  was  accomplished,  and  just  in  time 
far  opportune  relief  at  the  critical  juncture  referred 
to.  The  customary  yell  attending  the  charge  into 
action  was  the  first  indication  had  of  their  presence 
and  purpose.  The  Eries  were  taken  greatly  by 


64  BLACK-ROBES. 

surprise;  nevertheless,  although  the  circumstance 
served  to  chill  the  ardor  of  their  hopes  materially, 
they  recoiled  not  from  the  odds,  but  battled  on 
with  unabated  energy.  But  the  fiery  zeal  of  the 
youths,  who  had  their  virgin  laurels  to  win,  as  well 
as  the  honor  and  integrity  of  the  Long  House  to 
strike  for,  was  an  added  element  in  the  contest, 
which  even  the  most  stubborn  resistance  was  not 
equal  to.  The  valiant  Sag-a-neh-gis  maintained 
their  high  reputation  well.  They  fought,  they  fell, 
they  died,  but  they  would  not  yield;  and  it  was 
only:  over  the  strewn  carcasses  of  the  slain,  and 
through  a  way  hewn  wearily  out  by  stroke  of 
tomahawk  and  knife,  that  the  confederates  were 
able  to  gain  back,  foot  by  foot,  the  ground  which 
they  had4ost. 

The  result  of  a  conflict  where  personal  fortitude, 
address,  and  power  of  endurance  were  evenly 
balanced,  and  where  superiority  in  numerical 
strength  must  determine  the  issue,  may  be  antici 
pated.  When  the  clash  of  battle  ceased  at  last, 
and  the  wild  acclaims  of  victory  pealed  from  the 
lips  of  the  exultant  Ho  de-no-sau-nee,  it  was  the 
outburst  of  a  jubilation  that  could  provoke  no 
response;  for  of  all  the  gallant  array  that  had 
striven  so  valiantly  for  honor  and  conquest,  save 
here  and  there  a  solitary  craven  who,  during  the 
fray,  had  taken  to  flight,  not  a  living  warrior  was 
left  to  be  moved  lo  mortification  or  resentment,  or 
to  breathe  defiance  against  the  conquerors.  The 


THE   JESUIT.  65 

Sag-a-neh-gi,  as  a  name  among  the  nations,  was 
blotted  out  forever. 

As  the  ancients  of  the  tribes — the  broken  remnant 
of  the  old  nation  of  renown — sit  in  the  sunshine 
at  their  cabin-doors,  stringing  their  beads  or  plait 
ing  their  braids  for  the  tawdry  trinkets  in  which 
they  traffic,  in  these  latter  degenerate  days,  such 
is  the  tale  with  which  they  talk  away  a  summer's 
hour  for  the  entertainment  of  idlers  that  choose  to 
loiter  and  listen.  Let  the  preliminary  details  of 
the  tradition  meet  with  what  acceptance  they  may, 
the  crowning  fact  of  the  catastrophe  is  undeniably 
authentic.  The  battle  between  the  Eries  and  the 
Iroquois  took  place  in  or  about  the  year  1654,  and 
resulted,  as  the  narrative  sets  forth,  in  the  com 
plete  extermination  of  the  former.  Their  broad 
lands  became  a  possession  of  the  confederates, — 
the  first  of  a  series  of  acquisitions  that  were  to  go 
on  until  the  empire  of  the  Ho-de-no-sau-nee  reached 
from  Carolina  to  Canada,  and  from  the  seashore  to 
the  Mississippi. 


V. 


THE   FAITH  ON   THE   PENNSYLVANIA  BORDER   AND    IN 
THE    VALLEYS  OF    LA    BELLE    RIVIERE. 

ALTHOUGH  the  annihilation  of  the  Eries  left 
the  Iroquois  in  undisputed  ownership  of  the 
territory,  there  was  no  permanent  occupation  of 
the  upper  Ohio  valley  region  for  many  years  after 
wards.  The  labors  of  the  early  Jesuit  missionaries, 
therefore,  among  this  people,  were  limited  to  their 
original  settlements  on  the  lakes.  Twelve  years 
before  the  date  of  the  defeat  of  the  Eries — that 
event  so  remote  as  to  be  without  a  positive  history, 
mummied,  as  it  were,  amid  the  obscurities  of  tra 
ditional  times — the  Black-Robe  had  crossed  the 
St.  Lawrence,  and  planted  the  Cross  in  the  wilds 
of  Western  New  York.  In  the  summer  of  that 
year  Father  Jogues,  together  with  Rene  Goupel — 
the  "  Good  Rene," — and  Ahistari,  a  converted  chief 
of  the  Hurons,  were  captured  by  a  party  of  Mo 
hawks,  on  their  return  from  a  successful  raid 
into  the  Canada  country.  Jogues,  after  having 
his  finger-nails  torn  out,  his  fingers  gnawed  to  the 
bone,  and  been  forced  to  run  the  "  narrow  path  to 
Paradise,"  as  he  terms  the  gauntlet,  was  hurried 
along  to  one  of  the  nearest  villages  of  his  captors. 
Here  he  found  a  scaffold  erected,  on  which  were 
placed  a  number  of  Hurons,  prisoners  like  himself, 
(66) 


THE    JESUIT.  67 

destined  apparently  for  instant  execution.  Several 
of  these  were  catechumens,  who,  in  happier  days, 
had  received  instruction  from  his  lips  in  the  lodges 
on  their  native  lakes. 

Forgetful  of  his  own  afflictions,  the  generous 
father  at  once  entered  upon  his  priestly  duty, 
offering  whatever  of  spiritual  consolation  he  could 
impart  to  the  captives,  enlightening  the  ignorant, 
confessing  the  faithful,  and  qualifying  the  convert 
for  the  redeeming  rite  of  baptism.  There  were 
those  among  the  doomed  on  the  scaffold  who  were 
anxious  to  undergo  this  sacramental  ceremony,  but 
there  was  no  water  at  command  to  meet  the  want 
of  the  occasion.  It  so  happened,  fortunately, — 
providentially,  rather,  the  zealous  believer  would 
regard  it, — that  a  savage  passing  by  flung  a  stalk 
of  green  corn  on  the  platform.  It  was  in  the  morn 
ing.  The  distillations  of  the  night  had  not  wasted 
as  yet  under  the  temperate  warmth  of  the  hour, 
and  from  the  dews  that  clung  to  the  long  blades  of 
the  maize  the  eager  servant  of  Jesus  gathered  the 
precious  drops  that  served  his  purpose,  and  the 
saving  rite  was  accomplished.  The  prisoners,  for 
the  time  being,  however,  were  reprieved, — all  ex 
cept  the  natives  Ahasistari,  Paul,  and  Stephen,  who, 
with  the  cruelties  common  in  such  cases,  were  put 
to  death,  one  in  each  of  the  three  towns  of  the  tribe 
through  which  they  passed.  Rene  Goupel,  who, 
at  liberty  or  in  bonds,  never  failed  in  God's  service 
when  opportunity  offered,  for  having  attempted  to 


68  BLACK-ROBES. 

make  the  sign  of  a  cross  on  the  brow  of  a  child, 
was  cleft  through  the  skull  with  a  tomahawk,  near 
the  village  of  Andagoran.  Jogues  himself,  although 
through  repeated  miraculous  escapes,  and  at  the 
cost  of  cruel  suffering,  escaped  the  fate  of  his  com 
panions.  Kept  under  strict  surveillance  as  a  pris 
oner,  he  was  nevertheless,  after  awhile,  allowed 
the  freedom  of  the  villages,  where  he  employed 
himself  contributing  to  the  spiritual  comfort  of  the 
Huron  captives,  and  the  instruction,  where  it  was 
tolerated,  of  their  savage  masters.  As  the  fruits 
of  his  labor  during  the  few  months  of  his  forced 
sojourn  among  the  Mohawks,  he  reckons  in  his 
record  of  the  service  "about  seventy  baptisms,  be 
sides  many  confessions."  Having  received  friendly 
warning,  at  length,  that  the  Mohawks,  exasperated 
by  a  late  defeat  before  Fort  Richelieu,  had  deter 
mined  to  revenge  themselves  by  the  sacrifice  of 
his  life,  he  managed  to  effect  his  escape  into  the 
Dutch  settlements  on  the  Hudson. 

In  164.6,  having  in  the  mean  time  sailed  for  Eu 
rope,  visited  Rome,  and  been  honored  by  Pope 
Innocent  XL,  because  of  the  tortures  he  had  un 
dergone,  with  the  title  of  Martyr,  Jogues  was  ap 
pointed  by  the  Superior  to  revisit  the  scene  of  his 
captivity  and  establish  a  mission  there  among  the 
Mohawks.  To  cross  the  St.  Lawrence,  then,  was  to 
venture  into  the  jaws  of  death.  But  he  upon  whom 
the  agents  of  hell  had  done  their  cruelest  already 
— the  single  living  Martyr  of  all  the  dead — was 


THE*  JESUIT.  69 

not  to  be  deterred  from  the  mission.  "Ibo"  said 
he,  as  he  wrapped  his  dark  gown  about  him,  kissed 
his  crucifix,  and  started  on  his  journey, — "  Ibo — et 
non  redibo  /"  He  went,  and  he  never  returned. 

John  Lalande,  a  Frenchman,  attended  the  doomed 
father  when  he  started.  After  having  proceeded 
some  distance  on  their  way,  they  encountered  a 
band  of  savages,  painted  and  clad  in  the  colors 
and  costume  of  war,  by  whom  they  were  seized, 
bound,  and  conducted  to  Gandawague,  a  Mohawk 
village  on  the  Caughnawaga.  In  a  conference 
which  was  held,  after  their  arrival  there,  a  division 
arose  as  to  the  disposition  that  should  be  made  of 
the  prisoners, — some  of  the  clans  advising  their 
release,  the  rest  insisting  upon  their  execution. 
While  the  council  deliberated — it  was  in  the  even 
ing — one  of  its  members  withdrew,  and,  under 
pretense  of  hospitality,  invited  the  prisoners  to  his 
cabin.  As  they  were  about  to  enter,  a  savage,  con 
cealed  behind  the  door,  sprang  out,  and,  with  his 
tomahawk,  cleft  the  skull  of  the  missionary.  La 
lande  shared  the  fate  of  his  distinguished  companion. 

Seven  years  after  the  unhappy  adventure  of 
Jogues,  John  Le  Moyne  took  up  the  cross,  and, 
undismayed  by  the  cruel  fate  of  his  predecessor, 
followed  into  the  field  left  unoccupied  by  the  death 
of  the  Martyr.  Arrived  at  Onondaga,  he  consented, 
at  the  invitation  of  some  of  the  Iroquois,  backed 
by  the  entreaties  of  the  Huron  captives  detained 
there,  to  open  a  mission  at  that  town.  This  settle- 


;o  BLACK-ROBES. 

ment  was  discovered  to  be  peculiarly  desirable,  as 
it  afforded  a  larger  scope  to  his  influence  than 
could  be  commanded  at  any  other  point,  in  that  it 
was  discovered  to  be  the  central  capital  of  the  Long 
House,  where  the  representatives  of  the  Nations 
were  accustomed  to  assemble  in  their  annual  coun 
cils,  and  whence,  consequently,  radiated,  to  a  con 
trolling  extent,  the  influences,  moral  and  political, 
which  moulded  the  convictions  and  fashioned  the 
character  of  the  common  population  of  the  con 
federacy. 

The  early  labors  of  Le  Moyne  were  promisingly 
successful,  especially  among  the  Hurons,  who,  as 
sociating  the  rites  of  worship  with  the  memories 
of  the  homes  from  which  they  had  been  torn,  were 
all  the  more  favorably  inclined  to  its  observances 
in  their  captivity.  Nor  was  their  example  lost 
upon  the  Iroquois. 

The  good  priest  had  served  but  a  few  months  at 
his  post  when  the  news — the  great  news,  heralded, 
according  to  the  legend,  by  the  captive  Seneca 
woman — of  the  advance  of  the  Eries  was  blazed 
abroad  from  fire  to  fire  throughout  the  tribes  of 
the  Nation.  Of  the  warriors  who  gathered  at  the 
call  of  the  council  to  meet  the  invasion,  was  one, 
an  Onondaga  chief,  Achiongeras,  a  man  excellent 
in  reputation  among  the  captains  of  the  clans.  On 
the  eve  of  his  departure  he  called  on  the  Black- 
Robe,  pictured  to  him  the  perils  he  was  about  to 
encounter,  declared  that  his  courage  must  fail  him 


THE   JESUIT.  71 

if  not  inspired  by  brighter  assurances  for  the  future 
than  the  superstitions  of  heathenism  afforded,  and 
implored  that  he  might  be  received  into  the  con 
fession  and  under  the  protection  of  the  faith  of  the 
Prayer.  Persuaded,  after  due  investigation,  that 
his  convictions  were  genuine  and  sincere,  Le 
Moyne  led  him  to  the  water,  and,  by  the  mystical 
rite  of  the  church,  admitted  him  into  its  commu 
nion.  The  converted  chief,  with  the  dews  of  bap 
tism  yet  damp  on  his  brow,  then  started  on  his 
march,  and,  at  the  head  of  his  savage  legion,  was 
soon  forth  from  the  village  and  away  on  the  war 
path. 

The  opposing  forces  came  together.  The  battle 
waged  long  and  fiercely,  and  the  lines  of  the  Iro- 
quois  were  slowly  but  steadily  giving  way  before 
the  enemy,  when  Achiongeras,  whose  intrepid 
bearing  had  made  him  conspicuous  in  the  fight, 
suddenly  paused  and  beckoned  to  the  braves  who 
supported  him.  They  gathered  about  him  at  the 
signal.  Dropping  upon  his  knee,  the  Christian 
chief  lifted  his  crimsoned  hands  towards  heaven, 
the  group  of  assembled  clansmen  imitating  the 
action,  when  with  a  solemn  vow  they  unitedly 
plighted  their  faith,  and  that  of  their  people,  to  the 
God  of  the  Prayer  would  He  vouchsafe  them  rescue 
in  this*  crisis  of  their  peril.  The  vow  was  honored. 
Animated  afresh,  as  by  a  divine  inspiration,  the 
wavering  band  regained  its  footing,  won  back  its 
lost  advantage,  and,  profiting  by  the  recovery, 


72  BLACK-ROBES. 

paused  not  until  the  strife  was  over,  and  the  field 
triumphantly,  overwhelmingly  won. 

Achiongeras  and  his  companions  were  true  to 
their  pledge.  After  the  return  of  the  victorious 
army,  a  general  council  was  called,  when,  by 
solemn  decree,  Christianity  was  established  in  the 
capital  of  the  confederacy.  The  French  were  in 
vited  over  to  plant  a  settlement.  Fathers  Menard, 
Dablon,  Broar,  and  Boursier,  under  lead  of  the  Su 
perior  of  the  mission,  assumed  the  direction  of  the 
enterprise.  The  party,  attended  by  a  numerous 
escort  of  savages,  launched  their  fleet  of  canoes 
at  Quebec,  ascended  the  St.  Lawrence,  with  the 
banner  of  the  Cross  waving  its  silken  folds  in  the 
gentle  May-breeze  at  its  head,  and  amid  the  roar 
of  cannon,  and  the  ringing  cheers  of  waiting  multi 
tudes,  landed,  after  a  tedious  but  prosperous  voyage, 
on  the  shores  of  Onondaga,  where,  after  consum 
mating  the  trifling  arrangements  necessary  for 
their  own  temporary  shelter,  they  proceeded  di 
rectly  to  the  erection  of  a  house  of  worship.  And 
so  arose  the  great  central  Mission  of  St.  Mary's  of 
Ga-nun-ta-a. 

Among  the  branches  of  this  chief  station,  estab 
lished  as  they  were  in  each  of  the  tribal  districts 
of  the  Ho-de-no-sau-nee,  and  through  which  the 
Sacred  Mysteries,  to  the  enlightenment  of  all,  and 
the  happy  conversion  of  thousands,  were  made  to 
reach  the  ears  of  the  people,  was  the  one  organized 
by  Father  Chaumonot,  at  Gandagare,  among  the 


THE   JESUIT.  73 

Senecas.  This  worthy  pioneer  labored  diligently 
at  his  post,  and  was  permitted  to  rejoice,  as  one  of 
the  first  fruits  of  his  toil,  in  the  conversion  of  An- 
nontenritaoui,  the  head  chief  of  his  tribe.  Frenin, 
Allouez,  Raffeix,  Pierron,  Gamier,  and  others,  fol 
lowed  soon  after,  all  exerting  themselves  in  the 
duties  of  their  office  so  profitably,  that  when,  some 
years  after,  the  English  asserted  their  claim  to  the 
region,  and  the  Jesuits  were  forced  to  abandon  the 
ground,  they  left  upwards  of  five  hundred  baptized 
natives,  as  conservators  of  the  Faith,  behind  them. 

When  the  Senecas,  therefore,  began  to  occupy 
the  lands  along  the  western  valleys  left  vacant  by 
the  expulsion  of  their  enemies,  although  unat 
tended  by  the  Black-Robes,  they  went  not  out  in 
ignorance  of  the  saving  belief  of  the  Prayer.  They 
carried  the  Cross  with  them,  and  the  name  of  Jesus 
was  not  strange  in  the  ears  of  the  people  whose 
wigwams  soon  dotted  the  valley  of  the  Alleghany, 
and  whose  tents  were  pitched  down  by  the  shores 
of  the  Beautiful  River.  The  old  chief  Shekellamy, 
of  the  Cayugas,  father  of  Tah-gah-jute,  renowned 
under  the  more  familiar  name  of  Logan,  had  knelt 
in  confession,  and  taken  his  vows,  at  the  altar  of 
God.  Anastasius  was  in  the  communion  of  the 
church, — he,  the  chieftain  of  Loretto,  who  led  the 
Indians  from  the  fort  at  De-un-da-ga, — old  Fort 
Duquesne, — and  was  mainly  instrumental  in  the 
defeat  of  Braddock  on  the  Monongahela. 

By  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when 
7 


74  BLACK-ROBES. 

the  early  white  traders  began  to  extend  their  com 
merce  beyond  the  mountains,  numerous  settle 
ments  were  found  at  different  localities  on  the 
Ohio,  composed,  besides  the  Iroquois,  but  subject 
to  them,  of  the  Shawanese  from  Florida,  and  Dela- 
wares  immigrated  from  Eastern  Pennsylvania.  The 
first  prophet  from  abroad  to  lift  up  his  voice  in  this 
new  wilderness  was  Denis  Baron,  a  Recollect,  who 
had  come  to  serve  as  chaplain  to  the  French  soldiery 
at  the  occupation  of  Fort  Duquesne,  or  the  "  Fort 
of  the  Assumption,"  by  which  title  it  appears  to  have 
been  dedicated  on  the  first  recurrence  of  the  festi 
val  of  that  name  after  the  arrival  of  the  troops. 
The  services  of  Father  Baron  were  not  limited  to 
the  garrison.  Free  intercourse  was  allowed  with 
the  natives,  the  soldiers,  excepting  such  as  were  on 
duty,  passing  the  greater  portion  of  their  time  in 
and  about  the  bark  cabins  which  they  had  built  for 
themselves  outside  the  fortification.  By  this  means 
the  good  priest  was  enabled  to  mingle  with  the 
savages  of  the  neighborhood ;  as  the  result  of 
which  quite  a  number  of  conversions,  not  only 
among  the  Indians,  but  of  the  whites,  seized  in  their 
wars  and  held  as  captives,  are  reported  in  his  Re 
gister,  forwarded  to  the  Superior  at  Quebec.  But 
the  operations  of  the  chaplain,  and  the  projects 
which  may  have  been  entertained  with  regard  to  a 
special  spiritual  occupation  of  the  ground,  were 
cut  short  through  the  abandonment,  by  the  French, 
of  the  fort  in  1758, .their  surrender  of  the  Ohio 


THE   JESUIT.  75 

valley  possessions  in  dispute,  and  retirement  back 
into  their  own  proper  provinces  beyond  the  St. 
Lawrence.  For  nearly  thirty  years  subsequently 
the  Faith  was  left  without  an  advocate  on  the 
frontier. 

The  Abbe  Benedict  Joseph  Flaget  was  the 
earliest  apostle,  afterwards,  to  unfurl  the  standard 
of  the  Cross  *in  Western  Pennsylvania.  He  spent 
several  months,  in  1792,  at  Pittsburg,  administer 
ing  to  the  spiritual  necessities  of  the  settlers,  and 
of  the  soldiers,  collected  there  under  General 
Wayne,  just  then  on  the  eve  of  his  memorable 
march  against  the  Indians.  But  he  who  was  des 
tined  to  be  the  Pioneer  of  the  Faith  in  this  newly- 
developing  quarter  of  American  civilization,  had 
not  yet  quite  appeared. 

Demetrius  Augustine  Gallitzin,  begotten  in  a 
line  of  noble  descent,  was  borne  at  the  Hague,  on 
the  22d  of  December,  1770.  His  father  was  the 
ambassador  representing  Russia  in  Holland:  his 
mother,  Amelia,  Countess  of  Schmettan, — a  Ger 
man  family  of  high  distinction.  The  young  prince 
received  his  training  under  the  tutelage  of  Voltaire, 
an  intimate  personal  friend  of  his  father's ; — a  train 
ing  conformable,  of  course,  to  the  skeptical  creed 
of  that  eminent  philosopher.  But  maturer  reflec 
tion  brought  with  it  purer  convictions :  the  heresies 
of  deism  were  discarded,  and  the  youthful  pupil  in 
unbelief  became  the  convert  of  Christianity.  When 
seventeen  years  of  age,  he  connected  himself  with 


76  BLACK-ROBES. 

the  Catholic  Church.  In  1792,  accompanied  by 
his  tutor,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Brosius,  he  came  to  Ame 
rica,  entered  the  Sulpitian  Seminary  at  Baltimore, 
completed  his  studies  at  that  institution,  and  three 
years  afterwards  was  admitted  into  the  priesthood, 
— the  second  theological  student  of  his  faith  to 
undergo  ordination  in  the  United  States.  For  a  few 
years  subsequently,  after  he  had  taken  orders,  his 
labors  were  confined  to  Cumberland,  Hagerstown, 
Chambersburg,  Path  Valley,  and  other  points  in 
Pennsylvania.  At  length  he  conceived  the  project 
of  penetrating  farther  towards  the  border,  and 
choosing  out  a  suitable  locality,  with  a  view  to 
establishing- a  colony,  and  through  this  means,  of 
giving  rise  to  a  hallowed  influence  whose  benefi 
cial  force  might  be  felt  in  the  modeling  of  society 
out  of  the  heterogeneous  population  newly  planted 
in  the  young  settlements  of  the  West.  Accord 
ingly  he  selected  a  site,  in  an  uninhabited  waste 
on  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  erected  a  rude  cabin 
for  his  own  shelter,  and  a  log  chapel  for  the  accom 
modation  of  such  straggling  worshipers  as  Provi 
dence  might  throw  in  his  way.  He  then  purchased 
large  tracts  of  land,  which  he  divided  into  farms, 
and  sold  at  nominal  rates,  or  gave  gratuitously  to 
settlers  willing  to  share  the  chances  of  the  future 
with  him,  and  so  began  his  work. 

By  his  adoption  of  the  Catholic  faith  the  young 
priest  had  forfeited  all  title  to  his  father's  property. 
His  sister,  the  Princess  Anne  Gallitzin,  who,  after 


THE   JESUIT.  77 

his  disfranchisement,  became  sole  inheritress  of  the 
estate,  lent  a  partial  aid  to  her  brother,  by  which 
he  was  enabled  to  meet,  to  some  extent,  the  ex 
penses  of  his  enterprise;  but  her  contributions 
ceased,  presently,  upon  her  marriage,  and  Deme 
trius  was,  thenceforward,  left  to  his  own  resources. 
But  his  misfortunes  were  not  permitted  to  cripple 
his  industry.  Forests  were  felled,  lands  were 
cleared,  acres  were  tilled,  cottages  were  built,  and 
soon  the  mountain  wilderness,  stripped  of  its  savage 
features,  began  to  display  the  cheerier  view  of  field 
upon  field  greenly  grown,  or  goldenly  ripened, — 
beautiful  in  promise  and  rich  in  reward, — to  crown 
the  labor  of  the  husbandmen.  Meanwhile  the 
indefatigable  missionary  neglected  not  the  more 
important  obligations  of  his  office.  From  home 
to  home  did  he  journey,  from  neighborhood  to 
neighborhood,  exercising  his  deeds  of  chanty, 
imparting  his  lessons  of  religious  instruction,  until 
the  name  of  Father  Smith — the  humble  title  which, 
in  lieu  of  the  more  illustrious  designation,  he  saw 
fit  to  assume — was  known,  respected,  and  revered 
in  every  household  on  the  border. 

Gallitzin  began  his  mission  in  1799,  with,  per 
haps,  a  dozen  men  of  his  faith  scattered  about 
through  the  mountain,  and  no  other  sanctuary, 
save  the  little  oratory  of  Father  Flaget,  in  all  the 
West,  than  the  one  of  logs  thirty  feet  long,  which 
he  himself  had  reared.  He  lived  to  see  the  village 
of  Loretto,  which  he  had  founded,  grow  into  a 
7* 


78  BLACK-ROBES. 

populous  and  flourishing  town;  to  find  the  Faith, 
whose  standard  he  had  been  the  first  to  restore 
since  its  going  down  amid  the  ruins  of  Fort  Du- 
quesne,  established  upon  a  footing  from  which  no 
revolution  of  time  or  circumstance  was  ever  after 
wards  to  displace  it;  to  witness  new  chapels  spring 
up,  one  by  one,  till  every  hamlet  almost,  dotting 
the  lowlands  down  upon  which  he  looked,  had  its 
spire;  to  behold  his  mission  prevail,  until  the 
apostolic  number  of  his  original  followers  had 
increased  and  multiplied  a  thousandfold ;  till 
hospitals  and  houses  of  industry,  by  the  liberal 
charities  of  his  people,  were  erected;  and  till 
boarding-schools,  free-schools,  orphan  asylums, 
and  theological  colleges  were  institutions  common 
throughout  the  land,  as  were  the  necessities  which 
called  them  into  existence.  He  died  at  Loretto  in 
1840. 

Such  were  the  early  missionaries,  by  whose  in 
strumentality  the  light  of  Revelation  was  made  to 
shed  its  first  glories  in  the  wilderness  and  on  the 
border.  Should  it  be  charged,  as  illiberal  antago 
nists  have  charged,  that  the  labors  which  were 
spent  were  productive  of  but  temporary  and 
doubtful  results,  and  that  relapses  into  their  origi 
nal  superstitions  were  apt  to  overtake  the  converts 
as  soon  as  relieved  of  the  protecting  presence  of 
their  teachers,  it  ought  to  be  borne  in  mind  that 
the  material  to  be  operated  upon  was  crude  as 


THE   JESUIT.  79 

savage  imperfection  could  make  it, — incapable  of 
the  impressions  possible  to  a  condition  of  higher 
sensibility  and  refinement, — and  that  the  misfortune 
was  not  a  fault  inherent  in  the  creed,  or  chargeable 
against  the  ministers,  and  their  modes  of  its  inter 
pretation.  But  the  imputation  is  not  admitted  by 
the  religionists  against  whom  it  is  leveled.  They 
not  only  deny  the  apostacy  alleged,  but  claim  for 
their  proselytes  a  distinguishing  superiority  over 
all  the  native  populations,  pagan  or  heretical, 
besides.  If  challenged  to  the  proof,  they  refer  to 
the  evidence  of  Protestant  witnesses, — men  and 
women  of  popular  note,  and  competent  from  per 
sonal  observation  to  testify,  of  the  facts.  They 
point  to  Bishop  Fenwick,  who,  of  later  date,  found 
a  whole  tribe  of  Passamaquoddies  true  to  their 
Christian  allegiance,  and  whom  he  commendingly 
notes  as  "a  living  monument  of  the  apostolic 
labors  of  the  Jesuits."  They  allude  to  Sir  George 
Simpson,  who  relates  how  the  Chippewas  preserved 
their  faith,  unsustained  by  the  aid  of  a  priest, 
through  the  years  of  half  a  century.  They  quote 
from  Mr.  Buckingham,  who,  speaking  of  the  Hu- 
rons,  says:  "They  are  faithful  Catholics,  and  are 
said  to  fulfill  their  religious  duties  in  the  most  ex 
emplary  manner,  being  much  more  improved  by 
their  commerce  with  the  whites  than  the  Indian 
tribes  who  have  first  come  into  contact  with  Prot 
estants  usually  are."  They  repeat  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Morse,  who  writes  of  the  Indians  in  Western 


80  BLACK-ROBES. 

Michigan,  at  lArbre  Croche,  "the  seat  for  sixty 
years  or  more  of  a  Jesuit  mission,"  that  they  "are 
much  in  advance,  in  point  of  improvement,  in  ap 
pearance,  and  in  manners,  of  all  the  Indians  whom 
I  visited."  They  cite  the  observation  of  Mrs. 
Jameson,  who,  in  the  way  of  a  contrast  not  flatter 
ing  to  creedists  of  different  denomination,  speaks 
of  the  people  of  a  tribe  whom  she  visited,  as 
having  "heard  them  sing  Mass  with  every  demon 
stration  of  decency  and  piety;"  and  the  corrobora- 
tion  of  Harriet  Martineau,  expressed  generally 
with  regard  to  the  nations  of  the  Northwest,  that 
"one  thing  is  most  visible,  certain,  and  undeniable, 
that  the  Roman  Catholic  converts  are  in  appear 
ance,  dress,  intelligence,  industry,  and  general 
civilization,  superior  to  all  others."  But  there  is  a 
more  striking,  because  more  recent,  instance  of  the 
indisputable  blessings  accruing  from  the  labors  of 
the  Black-Robes  among  the  savages,  to  which 
they  refer  with  special  satisfaction,  because  so 
well  attested  by  clouds  of  living  witnesses.  The 
Chopunnish,  or  Nez-Perces,  noted,  long  ago,  as 
a  selfish,  avaricious,  miserly,  root-eating  tribe,  in 
habiting  the  distant  regions  of  Oregon  and  Idaho, 
were  visited  many  years  since  by  the  Catholic 
missionary,  who  has  maintained  a  permanent  oc 
cupation  of  the  ground  ever  since, — uninterfcred 
with,  of  course,  in  a  quarter,  until  within  a  twelve 
month  or  so  ago,*  so  remote  and  isolated  from 

*  This  article  was  written  in  1868. 


THE   JESUIT.  8 1 

civilized  life,  by  ministers  of  any  other  persuasion. 
This  nation  has  been  brought  under  the  control 
of  Christian  influence, — has  made  rapid  progress 
towards  refinement,  is  active  in  the  peaceful  pur 
suits  of  industry,  and,  in  marked  contrast  with 
surrounding  tribes,  stands  noted  for  the  orderly 
behavior,  sobriety,  purity,  and  intelligence  of  its 
people. 

To  whom  it  is  due  let  honor  be  accredited, — not 
grudgingly  and  reluctantly,  but  with  a  hearty  will, 
and  abundantly.  If  the  Jesuit,  defiant  of  perils, 
seen  and  unseen, — perils  that  threatened  death, 
and  visited  it,  in  every  imaginable  form  of  terror, 
and  through  every  conceivable  shape  of  torture, — 
dared  to  prosecute  the  errand  appointed  for  him, 
over  immeasurable  leagues  of  dreary,  desolate  dis 
tance,  and  by  pathless  ways,  through  solitudes, 
vast,  waste,  andxwild,  as  solitudes  might  only  be 
that  had  been  left  untenanted  and  untraversed, 
save  by  roving  beasts  and  crawling  reptiles,  since 
God  spoke  them  into  being;  if  he  followed  his 
pilgrimage  patiently  and  hardily,  in  despite  of 
summer's  heat,  of  winter's  cold,  of  storm,  of  night, 
through  sickness  as  it  fell,  and  want,  and  famine; 
and  all, — Heaven's  pity  on  him  ! — all  alone ;  is  he 
to  be  denied  of  his  glory  on  the  uncharitable  plea 
that  he  was  driven  to  the  task  under  sentence  of 
his  Superior,  and  as  constrained  by  the  obligation 
of  the  oath  of  his  office;  or  that  he  was  tempted 
to  the  sacrifice  by  a  mad  zeal  for  the  extension 


82  BLACK-ROBES. 

of  the  temporal  authority  of  the  church,  and  for 
the  aggrandizement,  especially,  of  his  own  eccle 
siastical  order?  If  the  formulary  of  his  profession 
— not  his  creed,  because  the  creed  of  all  Christ's 
followers  is  one — sanctions  a  scheme  of  views  and 
practices  not  in  accordance  with  the  notions  and 
customs  of  the  sects  which  repudiate  him,  must 
the  disciple  of  Loyola,  therefore,  be  esteemed  as  a 
vessel  of  dishonor,  and  disowned  as  a  false  prophet 
among  God's  people? 

Old  Menard  hazards  his  life  for  the  love  of  Jesus, 
traveling  and  tarrying,  as  duty  bids,  on  the  water 
and  on  the  land;  yet,  in  his  frail  canoe,  amid  the 
tempests  of  the  one,  or  under  his  arbor  of  fir- 
branches,  exposed  to  the  bitterest  of  midwinter 
severities,  on  the  other,  he  is  to  be  found,  at  the 
dawn  and  decline  of  each  day,  bent  in  devotion, 
repeating  "  Our  Father  which  art  in  heaven,"  and 
closing  the  invocation  with  the  supplicatory  chant 
to  the  Virgin,  "Mater  amata  intemerata,  Omy  ora 
pro  nobis!" — Is  the  hymn  a  sacrilege? 

Marquette  lies,  throbbing  his  life  away,  on  the 
shore  of  Lake  Michigan.  He  addresses  his  inter 
cessory  prayer  to  the  Mother  of  his  Master,  and 
then,  as  the  last  act  of  his  life,  raises  the  Cross  to 
his  lips  and  kisses  it,  in  sweet  regard  for  Him 
whose  sacrifice  it  typifies.  Was  that  an  idolatry 
for  the  soul  to  shudder  at  ? 

A  poor  Huron  captive  is  burning  to  death  at  the 
stake,  when  Father  Jogues,  himself  a  prisoner, 


THE  JESUIT.  83 

under  the  pretended  purpose  of  proffering  the 
victim  a  taste  of  water  to  cool  his  parched  tongue, 
rushes  into  the  flames,  and  administers  to  him, 
covertly,  the  sacrament  of  baptism.  Did  the  Re 
cording  Angel  write  down  the  false  pretense  as  a 
sin  of  special  enormity, — one  that,  measured  by 
the  standard  of  a  strict  morality,  should  appear  in 
startling  judgment  against  the  offender  in  the  last 
day? 

He  who  has  laid  to  heart,  dutifully,  the  admoni 
tions  of  inspiration,  seeks  not  to  examine  too 
inquiringly  into  the  faults  of  a  brother.  He  re 
members  the  lesson  of  the  Mote  and  the  Beam ; 
and,  above  all,  forgets  not  that  the  graces  which 
constitute  the  glory  of  Christian  character  are 
Faith,  Hope,  and  Charity,  and  that  "the  greatest 
of  these  is  Charity." 


THE    MORAVIAN. 


(85) 


THE   MORAVIAN. 


I. 

THE   MORAVIANS    IN    EASTERN    PENNSYLVANIA. 

DRIVEN  from  his  dominions  by  the  Elector 
of  Saxony,  a  community  of  Moravians — or, 
as  they  distinguish  themselves,  Unitas  Fmtrum,  or 
United  Brethren, — residing  in  Berthelsdorf,  a  village 
of  Upper  Lusatia,  under  the  patronage  of  Count 
Zinzendorf,  and  to  carry  out  a  project  which  they 
had  already  contemplated,  emigrated,  in  1734,  to 
America.  They  reached  their  destination,  after  a 
prosperous  voyage,  in  the  spring  of  the  year  fol 
lowing,  settling  themselves  in  Savannah,  in  the 
State  of  Georgia.  The  object  of  their  undertaking 
was  to  introduce  the  gospel  to  the  Indians  of  the 
New  World.  About  five  miles  from  Savannah,  in 
the  river  of  that  name,  is  an  island,  which,  at  the 
time,  was  occupied  by  quite  a-community  of  Creek 
Indians.  Among  these  they  established  them 
selves,  opening  schools  for  the  children,  and  pro 
claiming  the  "  Great  Word,"  day  after  day,  to  the 
people.  They  were  not  allowed,  however,  to  pro 
secute  their  labors  long  enough  to  reap  any  sub- 

(87) 


88  BLACK-ROBES. 

stantial  reward.  In  consequence  of  a  disagreement 
with  the  provincial  government,  growing  out  of  a 
refusal  to  take  up  arms  against  the  Spaniards  in 
their  attempts  to  expel  the  English  from  Georgia, 
the  Brethren  left  the  region,  looking  towards  the 
north  for  the  seat  of  a  new  settlement. 

Induced  by  favorable  representations,  they 
moved  into  Pennsylvania,  where,  attracted  by  the 
inviting  meadows  which  border  its  rivers,  they 
planted  the  little  colonies — grown  into  pleasant 
and  prosperous  towns  since — of  Bethlehem  and 
Nazareth.  These  towns  were  made  the  central 
seat  of  the  Brotherhood,  where,  dwelling  together 
in  amiable  companionship,  its  members  could 
carry  out  among  themselves  the  usages,  economi 
cal  and  social,  as  well  as  religious,  peculiar  to 
their  creed,  and  whence  they  could,  at  the  same 
time,  send  forth  their  evangelists  to  " testify  the 
gospel  of  the  grace  of  God"  to  the  unenlight 
ened  natives.  The  resident  members  of  the  So 
ciety,  towards  this  grand  aim,  were  covenanted 
through  their  charities,  their  contributions,  and  by 
every  means  which  arising  exigencies  might  invite, 
and  which  it  was  possible  to  command,  to  lend 
themselves  to  the  support  of  the  missionaries. 
The  missionaries,  on  their  part,  were  to  conform  to 
certain  rules  which  had  been  suggested  by  Count 
Zinzendorf  and  approved  by  common  concurrence 
of  the  Brotherhood, — rules,  by  the  way,  very  nearly 
of  a  type  with  those  to  which  the  Jesuits  had  been 


THE  MORAVIAN.  89 

pledged,  and  conformably  with  which  they  had 
served  in  their  earlier  operations  among  the  tribes. 
They  were  to  submit  themselves  to  the  wise  direc 
tion  and  guidance  of  God  in  all  circumstances ;  to 
seek  to  preserve  liberty  of  conscience  ;  to  avoid  all 
religious  disputes  ;  to  preach  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  to  endeavor  as  much  as  possible  to 
earn  their  own  bread.  In  a  strange  land,  with  the 
Puritan  to  beard  them  on  the  Border,  and  the  Pa 
gan  to  persecute  them  in  the  Wilderness,  and  with 
uncultivated  wastes  to  serve  in,  where  sustenance 
was  meagre  and  hard  to  come  by,  the  task  de 
manded  and  the  terms  imposed  were  of  no  con 
temptible  consideration.  But  they  were  men  willing 
always,  and  bold,  to  meet  their  responsibilities. 

Under  the  enterprise  of  Brother  Christian  Henry 
Rauch,  a  mission  was  opened  and  a  community 
established  in  Shekomeko,  a  Mohican  village, 
twenty-five  miles  east  o£  the  Hudson  River  and 
near  the  Connecticut  border.  Through  his  instru 
mentality,  three  of  the  natives,  Shabash,  Seim,and 
Kiop,were  converted  and  baptized,  under  the  names 
respectively  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  into 
the  church, — the  three  "firstlings"  of  the  Faith 
in  America.  Rauch  was  joined  afterwards  by  Mar 
tin  Mack,  Gottlob  Buettner,  Frederick  Post  and 
others,  whose  common  field  of  operations,  with 
Shekomeko  as  the  centre,  extended  from  Pachgat- 
goch  in  Connecticut,  to  Albany,  New  York,  on  the 
north,  and  Shomokin  and  Wajomick  on  the  Sus- 
8* 


9o 


BLACK-ROBES. 


quehanna,  in  the  west,  embracing  various  villages 
of  the  Mohican,  Shawanese,  and  Delaware  Indians. 
The  missionaries  encountered  serious  opposition  in 
their  work.  Post,  in  company  with  David  Zeis- 
berger,  made  a  tour  through  Northern  New  York 
among  the  Iroquois.  As  the  Six  Nations  were 
suspected  of  cherishing  a  sympathy  for  the  French, 
the  object  of  Post  and  his  associate's  visit  was  set 
down  as  a  political  one,  and  on  the  charge  that 
they  were  secretly  co-operating  with  the  confed 
eracy  to  bring  about  an  alliance  with  the  enemy, 
they  were  arrested  at  Albany,  brought  to  New 
York  and  cast  into  prison.  Although  discharged, 
after  a  confinement  of  six  weeks,  by  an  act  of  As 
sembly,  they  were  prohibited  from  preaching,  and 
ordered  to  leave  the  State.  In  Connecticut  they 
were  accused  of  papistical  proclivities,  and  had  to 
encounter  such  a  pressure  of  Puritanic  resistance 
on  the  ridiculous  change,  that  they  were  con 
strained  to  desist  from  their  labors.  After  an 
existence  of  some  four  years,  the  mission  of  She- 
komeko  was  abandoned,  the  few  Christian  Mohi 
cans  composing  its  congregation  retiring  with  their 
teachers  to  the  friendly  shelters  of  the  Moravians 
at  Bethlehem.  Here,  a  short  distance  from  the 
town,  for  their  temporary  accommodation,  the 
modest  hamlet  of  Friedenshutten,  or  the  Tents  of 
Peace,  was  built  on  the  Susquehanna  River. 

Thus  far  the  operations  of  the  Brethren  had  been 
moderately,  but  promisingly,  successful.    Bands  of 


THE  MORAVIAN.  9 1 

converts  were  to  be  found,  here  and  there,  through 
out  the  entire  range  over  which  the  journeyings 
of  the  missionaries  had  extended.  To  bring  these 
scattered  groups  together,  the  more  effectually 
thereby  to  extend  a  salutary  supervision  over  their 
spiritual  as  well  as  worldly  interests,  lands  were 
bought  on  the  Mahanoy,  to  which  they  were  in 
vited,  and  whither  they  repaired.  The  fertile  acres 
of  the  purchase  were  fenced  off  into  fields  for  cul 
tivation,  all  except  a  small  portion,  which  was  set 
apart  as  a  seat  for  the  dwellings  of  the  settlers.  A 
church  was  built  in  the  heart  of  this  reserve. 
Clusters  of  cottages  were  planted  along  the  rising 
grounds  on  one  side  adjoining,  and  the  homestead 
of  the  missionary,  and  the  consecrated  plot,  with 
its  narrower  abodes  for  those  who,  once  housed, 
were  to  know  thereafter  no  change  of  habitation, 
on  the  other.  And  so  arose,  in  the  valley  of  the 
river,  the  settlement  of  Gnadenhiitten, — the  happy 
village  of  the  Tents  of  Grace. 

The  converts  gathered  at  Gnadenhiitten,  besides 
the  Mohican  families  flitted  from  Shekomeko,  were 
chiefly  Delawares.  With  the  abandonment  of  the 
superstitions  of  their  fathers,  they  had  quit  their 
vagrant  courses  and  were  settled  into  a  community 
soon  noted  for  the  thrift,  the  exemplary  habits, 
and  the  well-regulated  behavior  of  its  people. 
With  the  dawn  of  each  day,  before  assuming  their 
allotted  labors,  and  at  its  decline,  when  toils  were 
ended,  they  might  have  been  seen  tracing  their 


92  BLA  CK-R  OSES. 

way  to  the  sanctuary  of  the  village,  there  to  pre 
sent  their  stated  offerings  of  worship  at  its  altar. 
Psalms  of  praise  saluted  the  morning ;  hymns  of 
thanksgiving  ascended  in  the  evening;  voices  were 
lifted  in  prayer,  and  lessons  of  instruction  declared, 
— Christian  Rauch  officiating,  or  Martin  Mack,  the 
first  commissioned  to  administer  the  Word  and  the 
Sacraments  among  the  converts.  But  the  peace 
of  the  settlement*  propitiously  as  it  opened,  was 
not  to  remain  long  undisturbed. 

In  the  active  hostilities  which  opened  in  1755 
between  the  French  and  English,  although  they  de 
clined  taking  any  part,  the  Moravians  had  to  bear 
their  full  share  of  the  resulting  distresses.  Many  of 
the  converts,  too  easily  seduced  from  the  paths  of 
peace  when  the  war-trail  offered  its  more  congenial 
attractions,  deserted  the  Tents  of  Grace  and  betook 
them  to  the  camp9  of  the  unbaptized  insurgents, 
who,  espousing  the  cause  of  the  former  of  the 
belligerents,  had  taken  up  arms  against  the  latter. 
The  rising  of  the  savages  created  intense  alarm 
throughout  the  settlements.  After  the  first  act  of 
barbarous  warfare,  which  consisted  in  the  burning 
of  several  houses  not  far  from  Shomokin,  and  the 
massacre  of  their  inmates,  the  threatened  popula 
tion  took  to  flight,  scattering  in  the  deeper  wilder 
nesses  towards  the  mountains  on  the  one  hand, 
and  with  their*  faces  seaward  on  the  other,  wher 
ever  a  way  of  escape  seemed  to  offer  from  the 
perils  by  which  they  were  surrounded.  The 


THE  MORAVIAN.  93 

Brethren  in  Bethlehem  and  Gnadenhiitten  alone, 
of  all  whose  safety  was  menaced,  refused  to  forsake 
their  homes.  "  The  peace  of  God  comforted  them, 
and  preserved  their  hearts  from  fear  and  despair." 
The  pagan  Shawanese — much  the  larger  portion 
of  the  tribe — employed  every  inducement  to  win 
over  the  residue  of  their  clansmen,  who  still  main 
tained  a  fidelity  to  the  Moravians,  but  without 
success.  Death  was  threatened  if  refusal  were 
persisted  in,  but  the  loyal  adherents  were  not  to  be 
moved.  The  mission-house  on  the  Mahanoy  was 
attacked  and  set  on  fire,  eleven  of  the  Brethren  and 
Sisters  perishing  in  the  flames.  The  visitation  was 
borne  by  the  sufferers  with  a  spirit  of  martyrly  for 
titude.  Steadfastly  they  maintained  their  place, 
comforting  and  sustaining  each  other  as  they 
might,  and  looking  to  God  as  their  refuge  in  the 
dark  times  of  their  affliction.  "  O  Lord,  we  be 
seech  Thee,"  was  the  burden  of  their  daily  prayer, 
"save  Thou  us,  that  all  may  know  that  Thou  art 
the  Lord,  even  Thou  only." 

Through  four  years,  down  to  the  time  of  the  aban 
donment  of  FortDuquesne  and  the  retirement  of  the 
French, to  their  own  provinces,  were  these  faithful 
saints  forced  to  endure  the  persecutions  of  their  re 
lentless  enemies.  Meanwhile  the  task  to  which  they 
were  dedicated  was  not  forgotten,  nor  the  zeal  di 
minished  with  which  it  was  pursued.  The  Indian 
villages  along  the  waters  of  the  Delaware,  the  Le- 
high,  and  the  Susquehanna  were  visited.  The  mis- 


94  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

sions  of  Friedenshiitten  and  Tschechschequannink 
on  the  last-mentioned  river  were  established,  while 
ministers,  such  as  Grube,  and  Mack,  and  Roesler, 
and  Kiefer,  were  sent  abroad  among  the  settle 
ments  to  declare  the  Word,  wherever  Christians 
were  to  be  comforted,  or  heathen  to  hear  and  be 
reclaimed ;  and  the  work  of  the  Lord  went  on  and 
prospered  in  their  hands.  The  emigration  of  the 
main  body  of  the  Delawares  and  Shawanese  to  the 
West,  shortly  before,  and  during  the  war,  and  the 
reports  of  the  region  which  found  their  way  back  to 
Bethlehem,  led  the  Brethren  to  look  with  special 
interest  in  that  direction. 

Christian  Frederick  Post  has  been  mentioned  in 
connection  with  the  operations  of  the  Moravians  in 
Eastern  Pennsylvania.  He  was  a  joiner  by  trade, 
but  a  man  of  more  than  ordinary  intelligence,  and, 
being  animated  with  a  lively  religious  zeal,  soon 
abandoned  his  humble  calling,  and,  qualifying 
himself  for  the  office,  became  a  minister  of  the 
Faith, — one  of  the  most  enterprising  and  efficient 
among  his  co-laborers  of  the  Brotherhood.  By 
reason  of  his  marriage  to  a  native,  although  an  ex 
cellent  Christian  woman,  he  was  deprived  of  his 
right  to  be  regarded  as  a  missionary  of  the  Society. 
Yet  the  disfranchisement  was  rather  technical  than 
real,  for,  while  not  officially  acknowledged,  his 
priestly  services  were  neither  forbidden  nor  dis 
owned  by  his  associates.  In  1758,  by  appointment 
of  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  he  visited,  on  two 


THE  MORAVIAN.  95 

occasions,  the  tribes  settled  in  the  Ohio  Valley ;  the 
object  of  the  undertaking  being  to  counteract  the 
mischievous  influence  of  the  French,  and  to  insure, 
if  possible,  the  establishment  of  amicable  relations 
between  that  doubtful  people  and  the  English. 
Success  attended  his  embassy.  The  savages  re 
fused  to  rally  to  their  support,  and  the  consequence 
was  that,  as  General  Forbes  approached  soon  after 
with  his  army,  the  garrison  of  Fort  Duquesne  de 
serted  their  stronghold  without  the  offer  of  a  blow 
in  its  defense.  Again,  in  1761,  Post  repeated  his 
visit ;  not,  on  this  occasion,  in  the  capacity  of  a 
political  envoy,  but  as  an  ambassador  of  the  gospel. 
He  prosecuted  his  journey  into  the  interior  until  he 
reached  the  wigwams  of  the  Shawanese  and  Hu- 
rons  on  the  Muskingum  River. 

These  adventures  of  the  distinguished  Moravian 
were  not  achieved  without  their  attending  risks  and 
trials.  His  route  led  through  an  unexplored  wil 
derness.  Bands  of  savages  infested  the  woods,  and 
the  red  stakes,  used  to  fasten  prisoners  to  for  secu 
rity  during  the  halts  of  a  march,  found  here  and 
there  driven  into  the  ground,  and  the  fresh  scalps 
stretched  on  hoops  and  hung  on  bushes  by  the 
wayside  to  dry,  plainly  indicated  that  they  were 
abroad  with  no  innocent  intention.  His  food  con 
sisted  of  such  provision  as  the  chances  of  each  day, 
out  of  the  spare  resources  of  the  forest,  afforded ; 
while  as  to  shelter,  for  thirty-one  nights,  as  the  jour 
nal  of  one  of  his  expeditions  intimates,  he  lay  in 


g6  BLACK-ROBES. 

the  woods  with  the  heavens  for  his  covering,  and 
the  dew  settling  so  penetratingly  on  him  that  it 
'  pinched  close  to  the  skin."  But  "  the  Lord  pre 
served  him  through  all  the  dangers  and  difficulties  " 
of  the  way,  and  brought  him,  "  under  a  thick, 
heavy,  and-  dark  cloud,"  safely  to  its  termination. 
Foremost  of  "evangelical"  apostles  in  those  dis 
tant  wilds,  he  nevertheless  discovered  that  he  had 
been  anticipated,  and  that  the  tidings  of  the  Cross 
were  not  unknown  on  the  Muskingum,  although 
the  Jesuit  fathers, — Jogues,  perhaps,  or  Gravier, 
or  Mermet, — to  whom  the  enlightened  were  in 
debted  for  the  story,  were  dust  and  ashes  genera 
tions  ago. 

Post  requested,  and  obtained,  permission  of  the 
Indians  to  establish  a  mission  among  them  ;  built 
a  house, — the  first  one  erected  in  the  State  of 
Ohio, — went  back  to  Bethlehem  for  an  assistant, 
and  early  in  the  year  following  returned  with  John 
Heckewelder,  and  commenced  his  religious  labors 
at  the  new  station.  Before  his  plans  were  fairly 
entered  upon,  dissatisfactions  sprang  up,  which 
were  to  culminate  in  the  war  of  1763  ;  the  Indians 
began  to  show  violence,  and  the  post  was  aban 
doned. 

But  the  experiment  of  the  Christian  pioneer,  if  a 
failure  in  itself,  was  not  without  its  beneficial  re 
sults.  His  explorations  satisfied  the  Brethren  that 
an  inviting  field  offered  beyond  the  Alleghanies  for 
the  display  of  missionary  enterprise.  Mingos  and 


THE  MORAVIAN.  97 

Shawanese,  Tuscaroras  and  Hurons,  had  their  vil 
lages  or  scattered  lodges  dotting  the  plains  and 
water -courses  from  Alleghene — for  so  the  country 
up  towards  its  source,  and  bordering  on  the  stream 
of  that  name,  then  known  as  the  Ohio,  was  desig 
nated — to  the  levels  of  Sandusky,  and  from  the 
Onenge  River,  or  Venango,  to  the  Muskingum. 
There,  too,  were  to  be  found  the  towns  of  the  emi 
grated  Delawares, — the  tribe  nearest  their  hearts 
as  the  one  among  whose  people  they  had  dwelt, 
and  out  of  which  the  principal  fruits  of  their  labor 
had  been  gathered.  The  remnant  of  that  nation, 
still  lingering  in  the  original  neighborhood,  was 
rapidly  diminishing.  English  settlers  were  intrud 
ing  with  fast  strides  on  their  patrimonies.  The 
Iroquois,  proud  and  unfeeling  masters,  had  found 
it  serviceable  to  their  own  aims  to  aid  in  these 
aggressions,  which  they  did  with  a  no  doubtful  or 
hesitating  interference.  "  We  conquered  you/' 
they  had  arrogantly  said  through  their  messenger, 
Paxnous,  an  old  chief  of  the  Shawanese,  "  and 
made  women  of  you.  Therefore  we  charge  you  to 
fall  back  immediately.  Don't  deliberate,  but  re 
move  away,  or  the  Great  Council  will  come  and 
clean  your  ears  with  a  red-hot  iron."  The  unhappy 
Lenni-Lenapes  had  not  dared  to  dispute  the  order^ 
and  soon  the  places  that  knew  them  were  to  know 
them  no  more.  The  Moravians  \vould  not  desert 
them.  The  Tents  of  Grace  must  be  pitched  anew — • 
so  they  determined — in  the  far  wilderness  whither 

9 


98  BLACK-ROBES. 

the  exiles  had  wandered,  and  the  messages  of 
Peace  must  be  borne  to  the  shores  of  the  rivers 
where  their  cabins  were  planted. 


II.  i*g 
THE  "PLACE  OF  HOGS"  ON  THE  UPPER  ALLEGHANY. 

THE  morning  service  had  been  held  in  the 
chapel  at  Friedenshiitten.  The  prayers  of 
the  congregation  had  been  offered  with  unusual  so 
lemnity  ;  the  voices  of  the  worshipers  had  mingled 
in  hymns  of  adoration  with  more  than  common 
fervor,  and  with  the  sentence  of  the  benediction 
still  lingering  in  their  ears,  the  Brethren  were 
gathered  in  the  open  space  that  lay  under  the 
shadow  of  their  sanctuary,  to  bid  God-speed  to 
one  of  their  number  about  to  leave  them  on  a 
distant,  arduous,  and  perilous  journey.  David 
Zeisberger  had  been  a  conspicuous  actor  in  all  the 
leading  enterprises  of  the  Society  since  the  date 
of  its  organization  at  Bethlehem.  He  had  pene 
trated  the  territories  of  the  tribes  of  the  East,  even 
to  the  cabins  of  the  Iroquois  at  Onondaga.  He 
had  prayed  in  their  wigwams;  he  had  preached  in 
their  villages.  He  had  organized  new  circles  of 
believers,  gathered  in  to  strengthen  the  bands  of 


THE  MORAVIAN. 


99 


the  old,  or  associated  apart  and  made  the  centres 
of  new  settlements.  Enterprising,  intrepid,  inde 
fatigable,  zealous, — the  Paul  among  the  Apostles 
of  the  Unity, — if  the  Good  Cause  cal-led  for  extraor 
dinary  undertaking  in  any  newly-chosen  line  of 
action,  he  was  looked  to  by  the  congregation  as 
the  champion  for  the  duty.  When  the  project  of 
a  mission  in  the  West  was  resolved  upon,  there 
fore,  his  appointment  to  see  it  carried  into  effect 
followed  as  a  matter  of  course  ;  and  on  the  3Oth 
of  September,  1767,  amid  the  solemn  ceremo 
nials  of  worship,  the  blessings  and  the  sad  fare 
wells  of  his  people,  accompanied  by  two  native 
converts,  Anthony,  and  John  Papunhank,  he  took 
his  departure  from  Friedenshtitten. 

The  familiar  scenes  of  the  Susquehanna  were 
soon  lost  to  the  view  of  the  Moravian,  as  he  pene 
trated  the  forests  through  which  his  tortuous  and 
difficult  way  conducted.  There  was  no  defined 
route  to  guide  his  progress.  The  paths  which  led 
through  the  wilds,  traced  there  by  the  herds  that 
roamed  their  recesses  and  the  tawny  hunters  that 
made  prey  of  them,  were  devious  and  uncertain. 
Obstacles,  seemingly  insurmountable,  interposed 
to  impede  his  advance.  Rivers  intercepted  his 
course ;  marshes  lay  before  him,  whose  miry  soil 
at  every  step  sank  under  his  feet ;  dense  thickets 
had  to  be  pierced,  and  great  plains  to  be  traversed, 
thick  with  rank  grasses  that  lifted  their  closely- 
clustering  spears  high  above  his  head.  Day  after 


100  BLACK-ROBES. 

day  he  toiled  laboriously  on,  to  be  rewarded  at 
night  with  such  rest  as,  stretched  on  the  bare 
ground  and  wrapped  in  his  blanket,  he  might  best 
secure,  under  the  pouring  rain  that  fell  almost  in 
cessantly  during  the  weeks  of  his  travel.  But  the 
indomitable  missionary  persevered.  On  the  i6th 
of  October  he  reached  the  Alleghany.  The  vil 
lages  of  Goschgoschuenk  were  before  him ;  the 
Beautiful  Valley  was  under  his  feet,  and  his  jour 
ney  was  ended. 

Zeisberger  found  the  Indians  at  the  Place  of 
Hogs, — as  the  true  interpretation  of  the  name 
makes  it,  not  inappropriately, — ignorant,  depraved, 
and  heathenish  ;  utterly  given  over  to  shameful  and 
diabolical  superstitions.  "  Satan,"  he  says,  in  his 
report,  "has  here  his  great  power;  he  even  seems 
to  have  established  his  throne  in  this  place."  The 
novelty  of  the  Moravian  worship,  however,  proved 
attractive,  and  the  religious  exercises  held  at  his 
lodge  were  largely  attended.  The  first,  and,  in 
deed,  the  only  one  of  his  hearers,  during  this  pre 
paratory  visit,  to  become  "  powerfully  awakened," 
was  a  blind  old  chief,  Allemewi,  of  the  Delawares, 
who  from  the  day  of  his  arrival  had  manifested  a 
friendly  interest  in  the  missionary  and  in  his  work. 
Zeisberger,  after  a  short  stay,  went  back  to  Bethle 
hem,  but,  in  May  of  the  next  year,  returned  again, 
bringing  with  him  an  assistant  brother,  Gottlob 
Senseman,  together  with  three  families  of  native 
converts  from  Friedenshiitten,  and,  building  a  log 


THE  MORAVIAN.  IOI 

cabin  at  the  outskirts  of  the  central  village  of  the 
three  which  constituted  the  town  of  Goschgosch- 
uenk,  established  himself  in  the  place.  Fairly 
domiciled  in  his  new  home,  the  missionary  entered, 
without  delay,  on  his  work.  Chapel  services  were 
instituted,  and  observed  daily.  "Preaching"  was 
held  at  noon;  morning  and  evening  meetings  were 
assembled,  where  prayers  were  offered,  and  hymns, 
the  composition  of  the  Brother  himself,  sung  in 
their  own  language  to  his  Delaware  hearers.  The 
savages,  in  their  best  of  holiday  finery,  with  their 
faces  freshly  painted  in  black  and  vermilion,  and 
their  heads  garnished  with  fox-tails  and  tufts  of 
feathers,  attended  in  crowds  and  participated  in  the 
exercises  with  gravity  and  decorum.  For  some 
time  these  services  were  allowed  to  go  on  with 
out  interruption  or  hinderance.  Interest  began 
to  awaken  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  the 
Brethren  were  comforted  with  the  prospect  of 
profitable  results  soon  to  be  realized  from  their 
efforts.  But  bitter  disappointments  were  in  re 
serve  for  them. 

The  captains  of  the  tribe,  a  cabalistic  order,  in 
one  sense,  professing  the  knowledge  of  certain 
secret,  supernatural  arts, — arts  by  which  the  popu 
lace  were  persuaded  that  waters  were  poisoned  and 
sickness  engendered  in  the  camps  of  their  enemies, 
and  to  which  the  initiated  were  indebted  for  their 
eminent  influence, — apprehensive  that  the  conver 
sion  of  any  one  of  their  class  to  the  new  doctrine 
9* 


102  BLACK-ROBES. 

would  lead  to  a  confession  of  the  deceit  by  which 
their  practices  were  accomplished,  began,  upon  the 
first  symptoms  of  success,  to  open  their  batteries 
of  attack  against  the  missionaries.  Converts,  it 
was  charged,  were  enticed  into  the  communion  to 
be  made  slaves  of,  and  the  deceived  would  learn, 
to  their  grief,  that  baptism  was  the  seal  of  perpetual 
bondage.  The  King  of  England,  it  was  declared, 
had  written  letters,  warning  against  the  Brethren 
as  emissaries  of  the  devil,  who  would  lead  their 
dupes  straight  to  hell.  The  inspired  teachers,  the 
sorcerers,  and  the  medicine- men  were  called  to  the 
rescue. 

"  Come  to  Jesus,  who  bled  and  died  for  you," 
Zeisberger  would  affectionately  exhort.  "  Call  on 
Him  for  mercy,  that  He  may  deliver  you  from  the 
power  of  Satan." 

"  I  have  been  intimately  acquainted  with  Jesus 
for  some  time,"  Wangomen,  a  defender  of  his  faith, 
would  rejoin ;  "  I  have  enjoyed  a  familiar  inter 
course,  indeed,  with  Him  these  many  years,  and  He 
never  told  me  that  He  had  become  a  man,  or  that 
He  had  shed  any  of  his  blood." 

Faith  and  repentance,  as  specifics  for  spiritual 
purification,  were  ridiculed  as  chimerical  and  pre 
posterous  If  the  formule  of  the  Psalmist — "Purge 
me  with  hyssop" — had  been  recommended,  cavil 
might  have  been  hushed,  because  the  practice  of 
their  own  doctors  of  divinity  could  not  consistently 
have  repudiated  that  herb,  when  themselves  were 


THE  MORAVIAN.  103 

accustomed  to  prescribe  jalap  and  ipecacuanha  for 
the  same  purpose. 

The  old  women  of  the  villages  were  incited  to 
join  in  the  general  outcry.  Because  of  the  strange 
doctrines,  they  said,  the  worms  were  destroying 
the  corn  in  the  fields  ;  the  deer  were  retreating 
affrighted  from  the  woods ;  the  trees  were  refusing 
their  fruits,  and  henceforth  they  might  look  for 
chestnuts  and  bilberries  in  vain.  Orators  from 
other  towns  came  in,  offering  their  eloquence  on 
behalf  of  the  opposition.  "  Cousins,"  said  one  of 
them,  a  Seneca  chief  of  Zoneschio,  "  I  perceive 
that  a  Black-Robe  has  come  among  you.  This 
man  will  seduce  you,  and  make  you  forsake  your 
old  customs  and  manner  of  living,  if  you  attend  to 
him.  I  advise  you  not  to  hear  him,  but  to  send 
him  away.  If  you  do  not,  you  may  find  him,  some 
day,  lying  dead  by  the  wayside."  The  converts 
were  called,  contemptuously,  Sunday  Indians,  and 
insulted  with  the  degrading  epithet  of  Shwonnaks, 
or  White-folks.  As  of  their  own  race,  and  apos 
tates  besides  from  the  faith  of  their  fathers,  these 
unhappy  ones  were  made  the  special  objects  of  the 
malice  of  their  enemies.  The  abuse  with  which 
they  were  visited  was  soon  followed  by  violence, 
till  at  length,  driven  forcibly  from  their  cabins,  they 
were  compelled  to  fly  for  protection  to  the  lodge 
of  the  missionaries. 

The  blind  chief,  Allemewi,  was  the  only  friend 
the  Brethren  could  rely  on,  outside  of  their  com- 


1 04  BLA  CK-R  OSES. 

munion.  He  shared  with  them  in  their  care  of  the 
persecuted,  and,  at  the  same  time,  exerted  himself 
to  appease  the  excitement  of  the  populace.  But  his 
efforts  were  unavailing.  The  lives  of  the  ministers 
were  threatened.  It  was  proposed  that  they  should 
be  stoned,  or  murdered,  and  cast  into  the  river. 
Two  of  the  savages  were  covenanted  to  see  to  the 
execution  of  the  design,  but,  perhaps  restrained  by 
superstitious  dread,  when  the  hour  came  to  admin 
ister  the  stroke,  their  hearts  failed  them,  and  they 
retired  abashed  from  the  presence  of  their  intended 
victims.  Other  conspiracies  were  formed  to  carry 
out  the  same  murderous  intention,  so  that,  to  guard 
against  assassination,  an  armed  watch  had  to  be 
kept  up  nightly  about  the  house  of  the  Moravians. 
It  was  finally  deemed  expedient  to  abandon  the 
station.  Accordingly,' Zeisberger  and  his  colleague, 
with  their  handful  of  adherents,  withdrew,  retiring 
to  the  town  of  Lawunakhannek,  some  fifteen  miles 
below,  and  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river. 

This  forced  desertion  of  Goschgoschuenk  was  a 
grand  achievement  for  the  captains,  the  sorcerers, 
and  the  women.  Wangomen,  inflated  with  the 
idea  that  he  had  been  a  conspicuous  instrument  in 
the  affair,  was  particularly  jubilant.  As  it  was  in 
the  line  of  his  profession,  he  took  to  the  vacated 
pulpit  of  the  chapel  himself  at  once,  but  having 
unfortunately  yielded  to  a  besetting  weakness, 
and  giving  drunken  utterance  to  doctrine  so  vile 
and  abominable  as  even  to  offend  the  ears  of  his 


THE  MORA  VIAN. 


105 


not  ever-fastidious  congregation,  he  was  dragged 
from  his  place  and  summarily  cast  out  of  the  sanc 
tuary.  Glikkikan,  captain,  warrior,  counselor,  and 
speaker  of  Pakanke,  the  Delaware  chief  resident  in 
Kaskaskunk,  seems  to  have  conceived  that  a  mis 
take  was  made  in  the  management  of  matters,  and 
that  the  case  of  the  missionaries  might  have  been 
settled  up  by  force  of  argument  far  more  satisfac 
torily  than  by  process  of  violence.  He  had  finished 
the  business  for  the  Black-Robes  in  Canada  in  that 
way,  and  did  not  presume  that  the  little  man  from 
Bethlehem  was  ribbed  with  tougher  metal,  that  he 
could  long  resist  the  penetration  of  his  logic  and 
eloquence.  He  decided,  even  yet,  to  make  the 
attempt,  and  invited  quite  a  party  of  his  townsmen 
to  accompany  him  to  Lawunakhannek  and  witness 
the  controversy.  Conscious  though  he  was  of  his 
own  power,  he  did  not  think  it  prudent  to  under 
value  that  of  his  antagonist,  and  prepared  himself 
accordingly ;  well  considering  beforehand  what  to 
say,  in  order  the  more  pointedly  and  effectually 
to  confound  the  Moravian.  But  the  counselor  had 
undertaken  more  than  he  could  manage.  The 
evidence  of  the  Truth,  through  the  lips  of  the 
Brethren,  fell  on  him  with  irresistible  persuasion. 
He  acknowledged  the  weakness  of  his  cause,  ad 
mitted  its  errors,  and  on  his  return  to  Kaskaskunk 
not  only  confessed  his  discomfiture,  but  nobly  in 
dorsed  the  new  Faith,  and  urged  the  acceptance  of 
the  gospel  on  the  people. 


106  BLACK-ROBES. 

Affairs  began  to  wear  a  more  promising  aspect. 
The  uncomplaining  temper  of  the  missionaries, 
their  never-failing  patience  under  whatever  visita 
tion  of  wrong  or  violence,  commanded,  at  length, 
the  forbearance  of  the  savages,  and  they  were  per 
mitted  the  undisturbed  enjoyment  of  all  desirable 
social  and  religious  privileges.  Comfortable  houses 
were  built  in  lieu  of  the  rude  hunting-huts  which 
had  first  afforded  them  shelter.  A  chapel  was 
erected,  graced  with  the  extraordinary  and  attract 
ive  appendage  of  a  bell,  the  gift  of  the  friends  at 
Bethlehem.  Presently  the  cheerful  evidences  of 
well-applied  industry  began  to  appear.  Grounds 
were  cleared,  gardens  were  planted,  and  fields  of 
corn  grew  and  ripened  in  the  sun.  Here,  too, 
under  the  dews  of  divine  influence,  began  to  spring 
up  the  seed  of  a  more  precious  sowing.  The  liv 
ing  knowledge  of  the  Faith  took  root,  at  length, 
in  the  hearts  of  the  people.  On  the  3d  of  Decem 
ber,  three  penitents,  a  father,  mother,  and  child, 
were  admitted,  through  the  solemn  ritual  of  bap 
tism,  into  the  church,  in  the  presence  of  a  large 
concourse  of  witnesses,  all  of  whom  were  deeply 
impressed  with  the  ceremony.  The  occasion  was 
honored  with  the  attendance  of  quite  a  company 
of  the  villagers  of  Goschgoschuenk,  who  entered 
into  the  spirit  of  the  prevailing  excitement  very 
enthusiastically,  but,  perhaps,  with  more  zeal  than 
knowledge.  So  earnest  were  they  in  their  ardor 
that  they  gravely  proposed  to  lay  the  question 


THE  MORAVIAN.  IO/ 

before  the  town  council,  and  have  themselves  and 
their  fellow-citizens  legislated  into  the  communion, 
without  delay;  but  the  missionaries  interposed, 
letting  them  know  that  conversion  must  come  by 
the  grace  of  God,  and  not  by  act  of  Assembly. 
But  the  most  interesting  event  of  this  delightful 
season  was  the  conversion  of  the  generous-hearted, 
stanch  old  friend  of  the  Moravians,  blind  Alle- 
mewi.  "  Brethren,"  said  he,  as  at  his  own  request 
he  was  carried  to  the  lodge  of  the  missionaries, 
"I  can  bear  it  no  longer;  I  must  open  my  mind 
to  you.  I  am  convinced  that  I  am  a  lost  sinner, 
and  unless  my  heart  shall  soon  receive  comfort  I 
must  die."  "  Come  to  Jesus,"  was  the  responsive 
invitation ;  "  weary  and  heavy-laden  as  you  are, 
there  you  will  find  rest  for  your  soul."  His  wife 
and  friends  tried  to  dissuade  him,  but  he  had  re 
solved  on  his  course,  and  on  Christmas-day  the 
believing  chief  was  sacramentally  sealed  into  the 
fellowship  of  the  Unity.  So  were  gilded  the  closing 
hours  of  a  year  obscured  with  clouds  and  dark 
ness  through  nearly  the  full  measure  of  its  circle ; 
so,  though  the  watches  were  long  and  weary,  the 
night  of  sorrows  was  told  at  last,  and  joy  came  in 
the  morning. 

While  yet  congratulating  themselves  on  their 
successes,  the  Brethren  were  called  on  to  undergo 
new  tribulations.  Unfriendly  relations  had  for  some 
time  existed  between  ^the  Seneca  Indians  and  the 
Cherokees.  Late  events  had  not  mitigated  the 


1 08  BLA  CK-R  OSES. 

traces  of  estrangement,  and  it  scarcely  needed  a 
petty  act  of  outrage,  which  was  perpetrated  by  the 
latter,  to  bring  the  quarrel  to  a  crisis,  and  precipi 
tate  the  parties  into  active  hostilities.  Lawunak- 
hannek  lying  in  an  exposed  position  between  these 
rival  tribes,  the  Christians  were  left  in  a  predica 
ment  of  great  insecurity.  The  excitements  of  war, 
besides,  not  only  precluded  the  possibility  of  ex 
tending  the  conquests  of  the  Faith,  but  were  a 
temptation  too  strong,  oftentimes,  for  even  the  per 
severance  of  the  saints.  When  blue,  typical  of 
peace,  was  the  color  of  the  day,  the  gospel  had  its 
chances,  but  its  power  was  paralyzed  when  the 
hatchet  was  red,  and  warriors  were  abroad  in  black 
and  vermilion.  In  view  of  these  facts,  the  Brethren 
began  to  discuss  the  expediency  of  continuing  the 
mission  at  that  place.  Repeated  requests  to  settle 
in  their  region  had  been  made  by  the  prominent 
men  of  the  Delawares  on  the  Big  Beaver,  seconded 
warmly  by  Glikkikan,  the  captain  and  controver 
sialist  of  one  of  their  villages.  Next  to  the  settle 
ments  on  the  Muskingum,  those  on  the  Beaver 
were  the  most  populous  of  any  within  the  territo 
rial  bounds  of  the  Delaware  Nation.  The  wider 
sphere  of  usefulness  presented  in  this  field,  and  the 
ostensible  readiness  of  the  people  to  receive  the 
Truth,  were  additional  considerations  to  be  taken 
into  account  in  the  estimate  of  the  question  of  duty. 
After  due  deliberation  it  wa§  decided  to  make  the 
change.  On  the  i/th  of  April,  1770,3  fleet  of  six- 


MORAVIAN. 


109 


teen  canoes  shoved  off  from  the  river-shore ;  the 
little  band  of  Moravian  disciples  were  launched 
upon  their  long  voyage,  and  the  mission  of  Lawu- 
nakhannek  was  abandoned. 


III. 
THE  "VILLAGE  OF  PEACE"  ON  THE  BEAVER. 

T)AKANKE,  the  chief,  had  summoned  his  sages, 
JL  and  conference  was  held  in  the  council-hall  of 
the  Delawares  on  the  Big  Beaver.  Kaskaskunk  was 
all  astir  with  excitement  consequent  upon  the  arri 
val  of  the  Black-Robe  of  Alleghene,  and  his  band 
of  emigrants,  from  Lawunakhannek.  The  wise 
men  were  assembled  to  greet  the  strangers  with  a 
formal  reception ;  a  civility  to  which  they  were 
hospitably  entitled  as  invited  guests,  and  which 
was  offered  with  more  than  usual  ceremony  because 
of  their  distinguished  quality.  Zeisberger  was 
before  the  Session,  attended  by  a  few  deputies,  to 
represent  his  people  on  the  occasion.  Speeches 
were  made  and  responded  to  ;  pipes  were  passed  in 
ratification  of  sentiments  expressed,  and  strings  of 
wampum  interchanged  as  records,  for  future  refer 
ence,  of  the  proceedings.  The  invitation  to  estab- 
10 


1 10  BLACK-ROBES. 

lish  a  community  in  the  neighborhood  was  then 
officially  reiterated,  and  a  spot  of  ground  desig 
nated  and  dedicated  to  the  missionaries  for  their 
exclusive  occupation. 

Entered  upon  their  new  possessions,  the  Chris 
tians  began  the  work  of  improvement  without 
delay,  and  with  their  accustomed  vigor.  Fields 
were  cleared  and  planted ;  huts  were  built,  hastily 
and  rudely,  for  present  occupation,  and  a  house 
completed  for  purposes  of  worship, — all  for  tempo 
rary  use,  and  constructed  of  bark.  The  usual  rou 
tine  of  duties  was  at  once  resumed;  hours  of  toil, 
of  rest,  and  of  worship  succeeding  each  other,  and 
commanding  their  appropriate  observances  regu 
larly  and  duly,  As  time  wore  on  and  the  more 
urgent  demands  of  agriculture  were  satisfied,  the 
settlers  turned  their  attention  to  the  improvement 
of  their  domestic  accommodations.  A  neat  and 
orderly  array  of  dwellings  soon  offered  more  com 
fortable  shelter  to  the  families,  and  on  the  site  and 
over  the  ruins  of  the  abandoned  bark  cabins  were 
planted  the  more  permanent  foundations  of  Lan- 
guntoutenuenk,  or  Friedenstadt, — the  Village  of 
Peace. 

Pakanke,  as  has  been  seen,  had  spoken  his 
welcome.  The  terms  of  his  address  were  liberal 
enough, but  the  spirit  lacked  the  ring  of  genuine  cor 
diality.  As  of  the  household  of  the  Lenni-Lenape, 
he  inclined  favorably  to  the  Red-folk  of  the  emigra 
tion  ;  because  of  the  political  distinction  which  his 


THE  MORAVIAN.  Ill 

patronage  of  the  Black-Robes  would  reflect  upon 
his  clan,  he  could  tolerate,  nay,  he  might  congrat 
ulate  himself  on  their  presence  ;  but  the  instincts 
of  the  savage  Adam — the  easily  ascendant  pro 
pensities  of  ab-original  sin  in  the  man — were  all 
against  the  religion  of  their  importation.  When, 
on  the  1 2th  of  June,  the  example  of  her  husband 
wrought  redeemingly,  at  length,  on  the  rebellious 
conscience  of  the  wife  of  Allemewi,  and  she  was 
baptized  into  the  communion,  the  chief  of  Kaskas- 
kunk  witnessed  the  novel  ceremony  with  ill-con 
cealed  disapprobation.  But  when  Glikkikan,  his 
lieutenant,  brought  down  by  conviction,  craved  per 
mission  to  transfer  his  lodge  to  Friedenstadt,  that 
he  might  dwell  there  as  one  of  the  Congregation, 
Pakanke  did  not  hesitate  to  avow  his  displeasure. 
"  You,"  he  exclaimed,  "  a  brave  and  honored  man, 
sitting  next  me  in  council  when  we  spread  the 
blanket  and  considered  the  belts  of  wampum,  even 
you  would  go  over  and  forsake  us  j"  "  I  would  go 
over  to  them,"  said  the  determined  prime  minister, 
"  and  with  them  I  would  live  and  die."  Then  the 
chief,  when  he  found  that  reproach  fell  without 
effect,  and  that  expostulation  was  fruitless,  began 
to  ply  severer  censures.  The  captain  was  charged 
with  sorcery ;  he  was  stigmatized  as  a  Shwonnak, 
and  pointed  at  scornfully  as  a  recreant  to  the  ven 
erable  traditions  of  his  people.  Nevertheless,  with  a 
constancy  more  creditable  to  the  orator  than  charac 
teristic  of  him,  he  continued  steadfast  in  his  resolu- 

9 


112  BLACK-ROBES. 

tion.  The  Brethren  came  in,  as  well,  for  their  share 
of  the  outpourings  of  savage  wrath.  Pakanke  with 
drew  from  them  the  protection  of  his  countenance, 
impudently  denying  that  he  had  ever  approved  of 
their  emigration,  or  that  they  were  settled  on  the 
Beaver  by  his  authority. 

At  this  crisis,  while  opposition  was  in  a  fair  way 
to  ripen  soon  into  positive  resistance,  its  develop 
ment  was  unexpectedly  and  effectually  arrested. 

Col.  George  Croghan,  delegated  in  1755  by  Sir 
Wm.  Johnston  to  visit  the  West,  in  order  to  coun 
teract  the  hostile  operations  of  the  French  and 
maintain  amicable  relations  with  the  Indians  of 
the  border,  had,  in  the  sagacious  discharge  of  his 
mission,  acquired  a  commanding  influence  among 
the  tribes.  Their  own  amiable  character,  coupled 
with  the  devotion  of  the  Moravians  to  the  pacific 
measures  which  it  was  his  policy  to  promote,  com 
mended  the  Society  to  his  favorable  notice,  and 
from  the  time  of  their  first  settlement  on  the  Alle- 
ghany,  shortly  after  which  he  had  been  visited  at 
Fort  Pitt  by  Zeisberger  and  Senseman,  he  had 
always  contributed,  as  occasion  offered,  to  their 
welfare.  When  information  reached  him  of  the 
disturbances  which  had  been  excited  at  Frieden- 
stadt,  he  promptly  interposed  in  their  behalf.  With 
much  earnestness  he  exhorted  the  offended  Kaskas- 
kunkian  to  cease  controversy  with  the  Christians, 
assuring  him  that  their  intentions  were  honor 
able,  and  not  by  any  means  adverse  to  the  inter- 


THE  MORA  VIAN.  1 1 3 

ests  of  his  people.  The  advice  of  the  English  com 
missioner  caused  the  chief  to  waver  in  his  purpose. 
It  so  happened  that  just  then  a  fatal  disease  raged 
with  great  violence  in  the  Delaware  villages.  The 
prevalence  of  this  epidemic  was  attributed  to  the 
workings  of  magic,  and  the  populace,  very  pliable 
under  a  panic,  were  easily  induced  to  believe  that 
the  fatal  visitation  was  chargeable  to  their  rejection 
of  the  religion  of  the  Black-Robes.  A  special 
meeting  of  the  counselors  of  the  tribe  at  Gekele- 
mukpechuenk,  or  Still-Water,  on  the  Muskingum, 
was  called,  and,  as  the  result  of  its  deliberations,  an 
envoy  was  sent  with  a  black  belt  of  wampum  of 
a  fathom's  length,  to  Pakanke,  and  an  order  de 
manded  for  a  convocation  of  the  Council.  "  There 
is  a  contagion  among  us;"  such  was  the  purport 
of  the  message.  "  Many  Indians  die.  We  shall 
all  die  unless  we  have  help.  Convene  a  Council 
on  this  belt.  Whoever  does  not  receive  this  belt 
shall  be  considered  as  an  enemy  and  murderer  of 
his  people,  and  must  be  treated  according  to  his 
deserts."  Pakanke  was  wise  enough  to  accept  the 
precaution  obscurely  conveyed  in  this  communica 
tion.  A  prudent  respect  for  consequences  decided 
the  course  for  which  the  advice  of  Col.  Croghan 
had  prepared  the  way.  Hostilities  against  the 
Christians  ceased,  and  peace  prevailed  in  Frieden- 
stadt. 

The  career  of  the  community  was  now,  for  some 
time,  one  of  almost  uninterrupted  prosperity.     The 
10* 


II4  BLACK-ROBES. 

possessions  of  the  Brethren  embraced  several  hun 
dred  acres  of  land,  a  large  portion  of  which,  lying 
along  the  rich  bottoms  of  the  Mahoning,  the  She- 
nango,  and  the  Beaver,  was  brought  under  culti 
vation,  yielding  to  its  industrious  owners  broad 
and  bountiful  harvests.  The  surrounding  woods 
abounded  in  game,  while  the  rivers  furnished  in 
full  supply  their  daintier  tribute  of  pickerel,  bass, 
and  salmon  to  lend  a  savory  variety  to  the  tables 
of  the  households.  Schools  for  the  education  of 
the  children  were  established  both  at  Friedenstadt 
and  at  Kaskaskunk.  Workshops  were  set  up,  where 
the  mechanical  arts  were  taught  and  put  into  suc 
cessful  practice.  The  raiment  in  which  the  asso 
ciates  clad  themselves  was  woven  in  hand-looms 
of  their  own  contriving,  from  yarns  of  their  own 
spinning.  Axe,  mattock,  spade,  plow,  all  the 
utensils  used  in  the  clearing,  the  field,  and  the 
garden,  were  wrought  at  their  own  fires  and  on 
their  own  anvils.  Debarred  of  its  luxuries,  the 
substantial  provisions  of  life  were  theirs  in  adequate 
plenty,  and  the  former  deprivation  was  more  than 
compensated  in  the  healthy  relish  with  which  the 
invigorating  tasks  of  acquisition  enabled  them  to 
enjoy  the  latter. 

Meanwhile  the  spiritual  interests  of  the  mission 
were  not  neglected.  The  only  damaging  accusa 
tion  which  remained  unsatisfied  against  the  Chris 
tians  was  that  their  converts,  by  the  terms  of 
communion,  were  to  be  relieved  from  the  payment 


THE  MORA  VI AN.  1 1 5 

of  their  proportion  of  the  national  taxes,  and  from 
rendering  the  customary  tribute  of  wampum  to  the 
chiefs.  To  quiet  the  apprehensions  of  the  parties 
particularly  concerned,  a  formal  declaration  was 
issued  by  the  Brethren,  to  the  effect  that  while  they 
would  not  interfere  with  affairs  of  state,  nor  par 
ticipate  in  the  wars  that  might  arise,  yet  they  were 
willing  to  bear  their  share  of  responsibility  in  all 
matters  affecting  the  public  welfare,  save  in  any 
case  where  it  was  contemplated  to  disturb  the 
peace  of  the  white  people  or  of  other  Indian  na 
tions.  This  announcement  met  with  approval. 
The  Caesars  of  the  tribe  were  satisfied,  and  the 
missionaries  had  an  open  field  for  the  exercise  of 
their  labors.  And  now  "  the  peace  of  God,  brotherly 
love,  and  a  desire  to  cleave  to  and  love  God,  our 
Saviour,  began  to  prevail  most  powerfully  in  the 
Congregation."  Glikkikan  was  moved  to  tears  by 
a  discourse  delivered  at  a  daily  prayer-meeting, 
greatly  to  the  disgust  of  the  heathen,  who  mar 
veled  that  a  captain  so  valiant  and  so  noted  should 
allow  himself  by  such  a  display  of  weakness  to  sink 
so  low  beneath  the  level  of  professional  dignity. 
But  the  captain  clave  to  his  conviction,  and  to 
gether  with  another  convert,  the  chieftain  Genas- 
kund,  was  admitted  shortly  after  into  the  commu 
nion.  One  after  another,  a  son  of  Pakanke's  among 
the  rest,  the  unregenerate  were  "  led  to  accept  the 
gracious  invitation  given  to  all  that  labor  and  are 
heavy  laden."  Visitors  were  attracted  from  She- 


II 6  BLACK-ROBES. 

nenge  and  other  distant  villages  to  hear  the  won 
derful  tidings  in  the  chapel  of  Friedenstadt.  A 
wicked  sorcerer  from  abroad,  as  he  stood  listening 
to  the  testimony  of  an  Indian  sister,  said  he  had  a 
great  mind  to  try  a  few  experiments  of  native  leger 
demain  on  her  to  her  personal  prejudice.  "  I  do 
not  fear  his  threats,"  said  the  sister;  "for  if  my  life 
were  taken  by  such  practices,  I  should  but  go  home 
to  my  Saviour."  The  awakening  was  specially 
marked  among  the  unbaptized,  the  catechumens, 
and  the  children;  all  making  confession  of  the 
abominations  of  heathenism,  and  uniting  in 
earnest  entreaty  to  God  for  mercy  and  pardon. 
Another  visitor,  an  anxious  inquirer,  sought  to 
learn  which  was  the  true  way  to  happiness.  "The 
Quakers/'  said  he,  "  maintain  that  their  doctrine  is 
true  ;  the  English  Church  asserts  the  same;  and  the 
Brethren  say  that  theirs  is  the  Word  of  God."  The 
reply  was, — Come  to  Jesus  ;  learn  to  love  Him,  and 
that  will  show  the  way.  Last  of  all,  the  chief  of 
sinners,  as  well  as  of  his  tribe,  Pakanke,  that 
sturdy  adversary  of  the  gospel,  resolved  to  visit 
Friedenstadt.  He  did  so, tarrying  there  for  several 
days.  The  truth  took  effect  upon  his  stubborn 
conscience,  and  when  he  went  back  to  Kaskaskunk 
it  was  to  exhort  his  children  to  do  as  he  had  done, 
— go  to  the  missionaries,  listen  to  their  words,  and 
learn  to  love  Jesus. 

The  Moravians,  however,  seemed  to  be  predes 
tined  victims  of  misfortune.     They  might   enjoy 


fHE  MORAVIAN.  nj 

seasons  of  repose,  when,  exempt  from  molestation, 
they  could  pursue  their  work  and  worship  accord 
ing  to  ordinance,  but  if  frustrated  in  one  scheme  of 
annoyance,  the  devil  would  fall  back  upon  some 
new  device,  so  that  these  intervals  of  tranquillity 
were  seldom  of  long-uninterrupted  continuance. 
For  pushing  enterprise  the  whisky- trader  enjoyed 
a  reputation  second  only  to  the  trapper  and  the 
hunter,  upon  whose  heels,  as  they  penetrated  the 
wilderness,  he  was  sure  to  follow,  close  as  their 
own  hounds  that  were  trained  to  the  attendance. 
Whence  his  supplies  of  the  commodity  in  which 
he  dealt  were  procured,  and  by  what  means  trans 
ported  from  point  to  point,  were  problems  often  to 
puzzle  the  curious,  but  so  it  was  that  seldom  a  tent  * 
was  pitched  in  the  forest,  and  never  a  cabin  reared 
in  the  clearing,  but  that  the  keg  and  the  cup — or 
the  rye  straw — were  conspicuously  at  hand  to  in 
dicate  his  presence  and  to  advertise  his  profession. 
Zeisberger,  mourning  over  the  deplorable  results 
of  the  trade  in  the  Susquehanna  settlements,  flat 
tered  himself  that  he  was  beyond  the  range  of  its 
commercial  traveler  when  he  found  himself  at  the 
head-waters  of  the  Alleghany,  where  the  face  of  a 
white  man  was  so  rare  a  sight  that  on  his  arrival 
a  courier  was  dispatched  to  the  chief  of  the  tribe, 
thirty  miles  away,  to  notify  him  of  the  extraordi 
nary  visitation.  But  the  peddler  had  preceded  him. 
Petroleum  at  four  guineas  a  quart  was  a  commodity 
worth  coveting,  and  the  fame  of  the  fountains  at 


Il8  BLACK-ROBES. 

Venango  was  not  likely  to  fail  of  being  blown 
abroad,  and  of  attracting  the  notice  of  the  gain- 
seeking  adventurer.  He  had  ferreted  out  the  spot. 
The  principal  statesmen  of  that  branch  of  the  Dela 
ware  dynasty  were  no  strangers  to  him,  nor  to  his 
liquor.  The  sachems  knew  a  keg  when  they  saw 
it;  the  captains  might  have  stood  as  tasters  at  the 
tables  of  the  connoisseurs;  and  so  habituated  to  the 
use  of  the  straw  were  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
people,  that  prohibitory  legislation  was  found 
necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  the  public  peace. 
Savage  ingenuity  was  quite  as  expert  at  evasions 
of  unpalatable  laws  as  the  wit  of  the  keenest  of 
pale-faced  dodgers.  The  chiefs,  however  far  they 
might  extend  their  authority  in  secular  affairs, 
dared  not  interfere  with  the  commons  in  their  re 
ligious  ceremonies  and  observances.  Under  cover 
of  this  right  the  latter  took  shelter, — established  the 
Festival  of  Rum,  and  in  the  celebration  of  it  got 
religiously  drunk,  as  often  as  they  pleased,  with 
impunity.  As  might  be  expected,  this  became  at 
once  the  favorite  red-letter  day-  of  the  native  calen 
dar,  and  was  in  the  full  tide  of  popularity,  greatly 
to  his  surprise,  when  Zeisberger  first  appeared  at 
Goschgoschuenk. 

The  Moravians  were  the  earliest  advocates  of 
temperance  in  America.  While  whisky  was  ac 
cepted  as  the  good  creature  of  God,  and  taken 
to,  lovingly,  in  all  circles  besides,  it  was  denounced 
by  the  Brethren  as  the  chief  of  evils, — the  prolific 


THE  MORAVIAN.  119 

parent  of  vices  and  immoralities, — and  placed  under 
ban  of  the  community  accordingly.  As  censurers 
of  his  calling,  and,  more  especially,  as  stumbling- 
blocks  in  the  way  of  his  custom,  the  missionaries 
were  peculiarly  odious  in  the  eyes  of  the  trader. 
He  traduced  their  religion  ;  he  vilified  their  per 
sonal  characters;  he  misrepresented  their  motives; 
he  seconded  the  native  sorcerers  in  their  ridicu 
lous,  but  dangerous,  charges ;  and,  to  quicken  at 
any  time  a  spirit  of  mutiny  against  them,  never 
hesitated  at  the  gratuitous  distribution  of  the  craz 
ing  element  in  which  he  dealt  among  the  disaf 
fected.  But  for  his  agency,  directly  and  indirectly 
felt,  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  state  of  affairs  would 
have  arisen  which  rendered  necessary  the  abandon 
ment  of  the  station  on  the  Alleghany.  The  same 
line  of  opposition  was  followed  up  at  Friedenstadt. 
Liquor  was  freely  circulated  among  the  populace. 
The  savages  were  incited  to  acts  of  lawlessness. 
Death  to  the  missionaries  was  threatened,  and,  on 
more  than  one  occasion,  attempted.  The  settle 
ment  was  invaded,  now  and  again  the  intoxicated 
mob  assailing  the  houses  of  the  inhabitants,  forcing 
their  doors,  breaking  their  windows,  and  com  )e  - 
ling  the  affrighted  inmates  to  take  to  the  woods  for 
safety.  The  continued  forbearance  of  the  Brethren 
only  tempted  to  new  aggressions,  until,  in  the  end, 
riot  enjoyed  unbridled  license,  and  the  Village  of 
Peace  became  the  scene  for  the  sport,  at  pleasure, 
of  tumult  and  disorder. 


120  BLACK-ROBES. 

An  additional  grievance  was  in  reserve  for  the 
community.  Kaskaskunk  was  a  village  of  marked 
importance  among  the  Indians  as  a  war-post, 
where  centered  all  the  principal  war-paths  from  the 
North,  and  whence,  by  one  common  trail,  passing 
through  Friedenstadt,  communication  was  had  with 
Fort  Pitt  Near  to  the  latter-mentioned  town  was 
the  Scalp  Spring, — a  fountain  famous  far  and  near 
as  the  place  of  rendezvous  commonly  appointed 
for  the  gathering  of  the  clans  when  the  red  hatchet 
was  abroad  and  strife  was  in  the  wind.  In  the 
spring  of  1771,  certain  of  the  vindictive  among  the 
white  settlers  about  Fort  Pitt,  whose  taste  for  car 
nage  seems  to  have  been  sharpened  rather  than 
sated  by  former  indulgence,  banded  together,  and, 
taking  to  the  shelters  along  the  Ohio,  on  the  plea 
of  revenge  for  past  injuries,  began  an  inhuman 
slaughter  among  the  unoffending  Indians  inhabit 
ing  the  valley.  To  escape  the  cruelties  of  these 
rude  border-men,  the  terrified  natives  deserted  their 
homes  on  the  river,  and  fled  for  protection  to  the 
interior.  Their  stories  told  of  the  barbarous  con 
duct  of  the  pale-faces  created  intense  excitement 
among  the  various  clansmen,  who  determined  upon 
swift  and  severe  retaliation.  A  call  to  arms  was 
proclaimed  among  the  tribes,  and  soon  the  painted 
warriors  began  to  assemble  at  Scalp  Spring.  As 
of  kindred  color  with  the  perpetrators  of  their 
wrongs,  the  Brethren  were  included  in  the  same 
doom  of  meditated  vengeance,  and  it  was  only  by 


THE  MORAVIAN.  121 

reason  of  strict  vigilance — a  constant  guard  of  com- 
.petent  force  being  maintained  about  their -houses — 
that  they  were  able  to  protect  themselves  against 
attempted  violence.  This  state  of  affairs  continu 
ing,  the  missionaries  became  disheartened  at  their 
prospects.  Without  peace,  that  cardinal  principle 
of  their  religion,  of  which  there  seemed  faint  pro 
mise  now,  they  could  not  look  for  prosperity.  The 
circumstances  of  their  position  led  them  to  reflect 
gravely  upon  a  step  which,  in  view  of  other  con 
siderations,  they  had  already  contemplated  with 
favor.  The  tribe  of  the  Delaware  nation  settled 
on  the  Muskingum  had,  for  some  time,  been  in 
sisting  upon  the  establishment  of  a  mission  within 
their  boundaries  on  that  river.  As  afield  of  labor 
this  region  had  been  held  in  high  estimation  since 
its  first  visitation  by  Post.  The  natives  professed 
a  warm  regard  for  the  Brethren  ;  the  valleys  were 
fertile,  and  the  locality,  so  many  leagues  distant 
from  the  frontier,  was,  presumably,  out  of  reach  of 
the  bprder  marauder  and  the  whisky-trader.  The 
project  was  broached,  and,  after  a  full  consultation 
of  its  members,  ultimately  resolved  upon  by  the 
Congregation. 

Meanwhile  correspondence  was  held  with  the 
Brethren  in  Friedenshiitten  and  Tschechschequan- 
nink,  the  two  settlements  on  the  Susquehanna. 
The  predicament  of  these  associations  of  native 
Christians  was  similar  to  that  of  the  converts  of 
Gnadenhiitten.  They  had  no  valid  title  to  the  lands 


122  BLACK-ROBES. 

they  occupied,  the  ownership  having  passed,  by 
conveyance  of  their  masters,  the  Iroquois,  to  the 
English,  who  in  their  eagerness  after  the  bargain 
did  not  stop  to  inquire  into  the  honesty  of  its 
transaction.  Besides,  their  situation  was  precarious 
from  the  fact  that,  lying  in  the  debatable  territory 
dividing  the  contestants,  they  were  exposed  to  the 
ravages  of  both  parties  in  the  skirmishes  that  were 
continually  springing  up  between  the  whites  and 
the  savages.  To  tarry  where  they  were,  with  a 
way  of  escape  open,  was  to  resist  a  plain  indication 
of  duty.  When,  therefore,  the  invitation  from  the 
Muskingum,  which  had  been  extended  to  them 
through  their  friends  on  the  Beaver,  was  received, 
they  accepted  it  without  hesitation  "  as  proceeding 
from  a  gracious  direction  of  the  providence  of 
God." 

And  now  were  to  sink  into  final  extinguishment 
the  fires  on  the  hearths  of  the  native  converts  in 
the  valleys,  where  so  long  they  had  lived,  and 
toiled,  and  worshiped  together.  Their  cottages 
were  to  be  forsaken,  their  fields  abandoned,  their 
sanctuaries  left  desolate;  and  for  the  protection 
— the  forbearance,  rather — which  the  invaders  of 
their  soil,  disciples  avowedly  of  the  same  faith  with 
themselves,  were  not  willing  to  lend,  were  they  to 
be  indebted  to  the  charity  of  unbelieving  barbarians. 


THE  MORAVIAN.  123 

IV. 

THE   JOURNEY    THROUGH    THE   WILDERNESS. 

THE  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  was  cele 
brated  with  unusual  solemnity  at  Friedens- 
hiitten,  on  the  6th  of  June,  1772.  Nine  years 
before,  John  Papunhank,  the  first  native  convert 
on  the  Susquehanna,  had  been  baptized  into  the 
death  of  Jesus.  This  last  Sabbath  of  the  occupa 
tion  of  the  village  was  to  be  made  equally  memo 
rable  by  the  admission  of  his  daughter,  through 
the  same  rite,  into  the  communion  of  the  church. 
By  the  following  Friday  the  preparations  of  the 
people  were  completed,  and  after  religious  services 
in  the  chapel,  where  praise  and  thanksgiving  were 
offered  to  God  for  past  favors  and  blessings,  and 
his  protecting  presence  implored  to  attend  them 
on  the  journey,  they  started  upon  their  distant 
pilgrimage. 

The  emigrants,  two  hundred  and  forty-one  in 
number,  were  divided  into  two  companies ;  one, 
led  by  the  Rev.  John  Ettwein,  to  proceed  by 
land,  the  other,  under  direction  of  the  missionary 
John  Rothe,  by  water.  The  clothing  and  lighter 
household  furniture  were  carried,  chiefly,  on  pack- 
horses  ;  but  when  these  animals,  with  which  they 
were  inadequately  provided,  were  fully  loaded, 


1 24  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

stores  of  valuables  remained,  too  precious  to  be 
left.  These  were  gathered  into  bundles  and  borne 
upon  the  shoulders  of  the  men  and  women.  Among 
the  rest  thus  burdened  was  one;  a  mother,  who 
carried  her  crippled  son,  a  helpless  child  of  eight 
or  ten  years  of  age,  in  a  basket  strapped  on  her 
back.  Seventy  head  of  cattle  brought  up  the  rear 
of  the  procession.  The  more  cumbrous  articles 
of  value,  such  as  plowshares,  harrow-teeth,  mat 
tocks,  axes,  and  the  like,  together  with  pots  and 
kettles  of  brass  and  iron  for  domestic  uses,  with 
others  of  larger  capacity  for  sugar-making  pur 
poses,  were  stowed  in  boats,  to  accompany  the 
party  that  was  to  go  by  water,  under  charge  of 
Brother  Rothe. 

The  navigation  of  the  Susquehanna  was  difficult 
and  dangerous.  The  restless  current  of  the  river, 
now  tumbling  in  cascades,  now  tossing  in  wild 
floods  along  the  rugged  slopes  of  its  channel, 
seriously  interrupted  their  passage.  To  stem  its 
tide  required  the  steady  aid  of  oar,  and  pole,  and 
line,  and  to  avoid  the  attending  risks  to  the  keels 
of  the  vessels,  unceasing  vigilance.  Progress  could 
be  attempted  only  by  day.  At  twilight  the  flotilla 
would  seek  the  shore,  where,  with  such  shelter  from 
the  inclement  weather  as  the  chances  of  the  scene 
of  bivouac  afforded,  the  weary  crews  would  retire 
for  rest  and  cover  through  the  night.  To  add  to 
their  trials,  the  measles  broke  out  among  them  ; 
many,  especially  of  the  children,  suffering  severely 


THE  MORAVIAN. 


125 


from  the  malady.  So  they  advanced  until,  on  the 
29th  of  June,  after  a  voyage  of  nearly  three  weeks, 
they  reached  Great  Island,  in  the  West  Branch 
of  the  Susquehanna.  Here  they  were  met  by  the 
band  under  conduct  of  Brother  Ettwein,  and  hence 
the  united  company  resumed  its  march  by  land. 

The  trail  which  they  followed,  scarcely  distin 
guishable  at  times,  led  through  forests  that  seemed 
interminable,  through  thickets  that  could  scarcely 
be  penetrated,  and  over  streams  that  were  crossed 
with  great  labor,  while  during  the  greater  part  of  the 
journey  the  rains  fell  almost  incessantly.  Venom 
ous  reptiles  infested  the  way.  Several  of  the  horses 
were  lost  at  different  times  from  the  bite  of  rattle 
snakes,  Brother  Ettwein  himself  narrowly  escaping 
the  same  fate,  having  accidentally  trodden  upon 
one  with  fifteen  rattles  that  lay  coiled  among  the 
bushes.  Much  annoyance  was  experienced  from 
the  vicious  assaults  of  certain  small  insects  called 
Ponks,  or  Living  Ashes,  by  the  Indians.  In  one 
locality  especially,  known  as  Ponks-uteney,  or  the 
Habitation  of  the  Sand-fly,  they  abounded,  so  that 
the  air  was  filled  by  them  as  with  a  mist.  They 
were  particularly  tormenting  to  the  horses  and 
cattle,  who,  when  the  evening  fires  were  lighted, 
would  rush  toward  the  flames  and  stand  amid  the 
smoke  for  protection  against  their  attacks.  The 
native  legend  accounting  for  the  origin  of  this  insect 
states  that,  once  upon  a  time,  a  wicked  hermit,  who 
was  a  magician,  made  his  abiding-place  amid  the 
ii* 


126  BLACK-ROBES. 

rocks  there,  and  spent  his  days  in  alarming,  and 
occasionally  murdering,  unsuspecting  travelers  who 
happened  to  pass  that  way.  A  certain  warrior 
undertook  to  rid  the  region  of  the  mischievous  re 
cluse,  sought  him  out,  and,  having  dispatched  him, 
burnt  his  bones  and  scattered  their  dust  in  the  air. 
But  though  the  magician  was  disposed  of,  the  curse 
was  scarcely  abated,  for  of  all  the  ashes  sown  to  the 
wind,  each  separate  particle  became  a  thing  of  life, 
winged  and  fanged,  to  hover  around  and  visit  re 
venge,  through  time  to  come,  upon  the  race  of  his 
destroyer.  Several  of  the  emigrants  died  during 
the  journey.  The  crippled  boy  who  had  been  car 
ried  on  his  mother's  back,  after  having  long  borne 
up  under  the  fatigue  of  the  march,  sickened  at  last 
and  began  to  sink  rapidly.  Conscious  that  his  end 
was  at  hand,  the  child  asked  to  be  baptized.  His 
request  was  granted,  and  none 'too  soon  ;  for  within 
a  few  hours  subsequently  his  spirit  was  caught  away, 
and  its  wasted  frame  committed  to  the  mould. 

Throughout  their  dreary  pilgrimage  the  re 
ligious  duties  to  which  they  were  accustomed 
were  never  forgotten  or  neglected.  Morning  and 
evening  their  wonted  social  devotions  were  duly 
observed.  Prayers  were  said,  praises  sung,  and 
words  of  exhortation  delivered  with  constant  regu 
larity.  Nor  did  they  fail  to  invite  those  among 
whom  they  fell  along  their  route  to  participate  in 
their  services.  "They  had  no  greater  satisfaction 
than  to  tell  their  fellow-men,  from  the  experience 


THE  MORAVIAN.  127 

of  their  own  hearts,  how  happy  that  man  is  who 
believes  in  Jesus." 

On  the  2Qth  of  July  they  reached  the  Alleghany 
River.  Canoes  were  here  prepared,  in  which  the 
heavier  goods,  together  with  the  aged  and  infirm 
of  their  number,  were  placed  for  easier  conveyance 
to  their  destination.  Near  this  point  they  were  met 
by  Brother  Heckewelder,  with  men  and  horses  from 
the  Beaver,  under  whose  escort  they  proceeded 
now,  until,  on  the  5th  of  August,  they  were  saluted 
with  the  greetings  of  the  Brethren  at  Friedenstadt. 

Arrived  among  their  friends,  the  emigrants  tar 
ried  while  a  deputation,  headed  by  Papunhank, 
started  for  Gekelemukpechuenk  to  complete  ar 
rangements  preparatory  to  the  general  movement 
of  the  body  to  the  Muskingum.  Matters  having 
been  satisfactorily  adjusted,  the  march  was  soon 
resumed,  and  continued  until,  in  due  time  and 
without  interruption,  its  point  of  destination  was 
reached.  A  few  months  later,  in  April  of  the 
succeeding  year,  they  were  followed  by  the  Con 
gregation  at  Friedenstadt.  Two  settlements  were 
made  on  the  Muskingum, — Schonbrunn,  the  Beau 
tiful  Spring,  two  hundred  miles  from  its  mouth,  and 
Gnadenhiitten,  composed  of  the  Mohicans  among 
the  emigrants,  ten  miles  lower  down  the  river. 

The  communities,  with  accustomed  energy,  fell 
to  work  without  delay  to  establish  themselves 
comfortably  in  their  new  homes.  Their  villages 
were  carefully  and  regularly  laid  out ;  wide  streets 


128  BLACK-ROBES. 

were  opened,  with  fences  thrown  across  at  either 
end,  so  that  the  cattle  might  be  excluded  and  per 
fect  cleanliness  secured  in  these  public  thorough 
fares.  Chapels  were  erected,  —  imposing  edifices 
in  the  eyes  of  the  people,  with  their  solid  walls 
of  square-hewn  logs,  their  shingled  roofs,  their 
belfries,  and  their  bells!  School-houses  were 
built.  Fields,  inclosed  with  rail  fences,  were  made 
ready  for  the  plow,  and  gardens,  surrounded  with 
palings,  for  the  spade.  Fruit-trees  were  planted, 
and  ornamental  shrubbery  set  out  about  the 
houses.  The  results  of  their  industry  were  soon 
the  wonder  and  admiration  of  their  ignorant  and 
thriftless  neighbors,  as  the  cultivated  soil  shot  up  its 
growth  of  corn,  and  the  pasture-lands  filled  with 
increasing  herds  of  cattle,  of  horses,  and  of  hogs. 

Rules  were  adopted  by  the  Congregations  for 
the  maintenance  among  them  of  fitting  discipline. 
They  were  to  know  no  other  God  than  He  who 
created  and  redeemed  them  ;  to  rest  from  all  labors 
on  Sunday,  and  punctually  attend  its  stated  ser 
vices  of  worship ;  to  honor  their  parents  and  sup 
port  them  in  their  old  age ;  and  to  be  obedient  to 
their  teachers,  industrious,  truthful,  and  peaceable. 
They  were  to  renounce  all  juggles,  lies,  and  de 
ceits  of  the  devil ;  not  to  use  Trchappicli,  that  is 
witchcraft,  in  hunting ;  nor  to  attend  dances,  sacri 
fices,  or  heathenish  festivals.  No  thieves,  murder 
ers,  drunkards,  adulterers,  or  whoremongers  were 
to  be  allowed  fellowship  with  them.  They  were 


THE  MORAVIAN.  129 

each  to  have  but  one  wife,  who  was  to  be  obedient 
to  her  husband,  take  care  of  the  children,  and  be 
cleanly  in  all  things.  The  use  of  rum  was  pro 
hibited.  They  were  not  to  run  in  debt,  nor  to 
purchase  goods  knowing  them  to  be  stolen ;  and, 
finally,  no  man  inclining  to  go  to  war — which  is 
the  shedding  of  blood — could  remain  among  them. 
These  rules  were  regularly  read  before  the  churches 
at  the  commencement  of  each  year,  and  no  one 
refusing  assent  to  them  could  be  received  into  the 
brotherhood. 

The  labors  of  the  missionaries  were  not  restricted 
to  the  new  Christian  settlements.  Zeisberger  made 
a  tour  among  the  Shawanese,  who,  contrary  to 
his  expectations,  bearing  in  mind  their  illiberal 
behavior  on  the  other  side  of  the  mountains,  re 
ceived  him  with  much  kindness.  At  Waketameki, 
fifty  miles  below  Schonbrunn,  on  the  river,  he  met 
with  a  son  of  the  old  chief  Paxnous,  the  bearer  of 
the  threatening  message  of  the  Iroquois  to  the 
Brethren  at  Gnadenhiitten  on  the  Mahanoy,  who 
entertained  him  generously,  and  inclined  a  com 
plaisant  ear  to  his  spiritual  counsel.  His  recom 
mendation  secured  the  missionary  a  friendly  re 
ception  from  the  heathen  teacher  of  the  principal 
town  of  the  tribe  to  which  he  next  directed  his 
steps.  A  room  was  fitted  up  specially  for  his  use, 
where  he  daily  unfolded  the  mystery  of  godliness 
to  large  and  attentive  audiences.  Nor  were  the 
words  of  inspiration  presented  in  vain.  "  I  believe," 


'130  BLA  CK-R  OSES. 

testified  the  teacher,  touched  by  his  eloquence, 
"  that  all  you  preach  is  truth.  A  year  ago  I  be 
came  convinced  that  we  were  altogether  sinful 
creatures,  but  we  did  not  know  what  to  do  to  gain 
eternal  salvation.  Now  you  are  come,  and  I  verily 
believe  that  God  has  sent  you  to  make  his  word 
known  to  us." 

As  their  reverend  visitor  was  about  leaving,  the 
chiefs  and  council,  through  the  lips  of  the  teacher, 
delivered  a  parting  message.  They  rejoiced  that 
he  had  come  among  them,  bringing  the  word  of 
God,  which  they  had  heard  with  pleasure.  They 
had  convened  together,  and  after  full  deliberation 
had  passed  a  resolution  unanimously.  True,  the 
women  were  not  present,  being  engaged  at  the 
time  in  gathering  in  the  crops  ;  but  that  did  not 
signify,  for  what  the  men  agreed  upon  they  would 
undoubtedly  assent  to.  They  had  resolved  to  re 
ceive  the  word  of  God,  and  desired  that  a  Black- 
Robe  would  come  and  dwell  with  them,  and  teach 
them  how  they  might  be  saved.  An  official  decla 
ration  of  such  a  spirit  from  the  council  of  a  tribe 
whose  sympathies  had  all  along  been  regarded  as 
irreclaimably  at  variance  with  the  spirit  of  the 
gospel,  particularly  as  interpreted  by  the  Mora 
vians,  was  as  unexpected  as  it  was  gratifying  to 
Zeisberger.  His  visits  were  repeated,  and  precious 
results  might  have  ensued  but  for  the  public  ex 
citements  which  presently  arose  to  unsettle  the 
repose  of  the  people,  and  to  bar  the  way  thus  aus- 


THE  MORAVIAN.  131 

piciously  opened  for  the  introduction  of  the  faith 
among  this  gentile  nation. 

The  missionary  next  directed  his  attention  to 
Gekelemukpechuenk,  the  Delaware  capital  ori 
the  Muskingum.  His  preaching  there  told  with 
effective  power  on  many  of  its  inhabitants.  Ech- 
palawehund,  an  eminent  chief,  was  among  the  con 
verts.  His  renunciation  of  heathenism  produced 
quite  a  stir  in  the  town.  The  enemies  of  Chris 
tianity  cried  out  vehemently  against  the  act,  and 
were  for  banishing  the  Brother,  as  the  cause  of  it, 
from  the  country.  Why,  said  they,  should  this 
pale-faced  palaverer  be  allowed  to  come  and  un 
settle  the  peace  of  the  people  ?  They  had  lived 
contentedly  enough  while  they  had  clung  to  their 
inherited  belief  and  followed  the  good  old  Indian 
customs,  and  now  they  were  told  that  these  cus 
toms  were  sinful,  and  that  their  sacrifices  were  an 
abomination  in  the  sight  of  God.  Were  they  to 
submit  to  the  innovation — to  allow  their  rites  to  be 
openly  scorned,  the  religion  of  their  fathers  to  be 
slandered,  and  their  captains  to  be  bewitched  — 
without  resistance  or  protest  ? 

A  council  was  called,  which  continued  in  session 
over  the  question  for  three  days.  The  friends  of 
the  Moravians  were  found  to  outnumber  their  ad 
versaries,  and  it  was  finally  resolved,  that  while  the 
natives  of  Still-Water  were  not  willing  to  adopt  or 
approve  of  all  the  usages  peculiar  to  the  Unity, 
they  would,  nevertheless,  change  their  manner  of 


1 32  BLACK-ROBES. 

living ;  prohibit  drunkenness,  abandon  their  other 
vices,  and  not  allow  whisky-traders,  who  were  the 
authors  of  all  wickedness,  to  enter  their  town.  In 
proof  of  their  sincerity  in  the  matter  involved  in 
the  last  item  of  their  resolution,  they  seized  upon 
the  stock  of  a  traveling  dealer  who  happened  to  be 
in  the  place,  broke  open  the  casks,  and  emptied 
their  contents  into  the  street.  The  work  of  reforma 
tion  was  complete — while  it  lasted ;  but  such  a 
wholesale  waste  of  good  liquor  was  a  trial  that 
savage  virtue  could  not  stand  the  test  of  more  than 
once.  The  sacrifice  was  never  repeated.  Other 
traders,  ignorant,  or  careless,  of  the  unfortunate  ex 
ample  of  him  who  had  fared  so  haplessly,  entered 
again  the  forbidden  limits,  and  the  beverage  soon 
offered  as  freely  and  was  as  popular  as  ever. 

One  of  his  old  adversaries  at  this  crisis  turned  up 
again  to  oppose  his  work  and  offer  annoyance  to 
Zeisberger, — Wangomen,  the  prophet  of  Gosch- 
goschuenk.  Wangomen  was  good  on  the  stump, — 
a  fluent  talker,  a  finished  hyperbolist,  of  bold  elo 
quence,  and  apt  at  the  tricks  of  his  profession ;  but 
the  orator  had  a  penchant  for  liquor,  and  under  its 
stimulus  was,  too  often  for  his  reputation,  tempted 
in  his  declamation  to  overleap  the  bounds  of  dis 
cretion,  as  on  this  occasion.  His  language  was 
lofty,  his  argument  was  bold.  Was  this  an  emer 
gency  calling  for  a  sound  defense  of  the  religion  of 
their  ancestors  ?  The  Place  of  Hogs  had  provided 
them  with  the  champion  for  the  task.  Common 


THE  MORAVIAN.  133 

prophets  there  were,  who  had  been  near  enough 
to  heaven  to  hear  the  cocks  crow,  and  to  see  the 
smoke  of  the  chimneys  of  the  celestial  cabins,  but 
he  had  his  home  in  the  side  of  the  Deity,  where 
he  was  accustomed  to  walk  in  and  out  at  pleasure. 
What  he  had  to  say,  therefore,  might  be  regarded 
as  authoritatively  spoken.  Zeisberger's  God  had 
become  a  man,  and  died.  This  could  not  be  the 
true  God,  or  he,  the  orator,  would  have  been  ac 
quainted  with  the  circumstance,  as  he  had  never 
been  away  from  paradise  long  enough,  at  any  time, 
not  to  have  noticed  so  extended  an  absence.  How 
would  the  Black-Robe  have  them  seek  for  salva 
tion  ?  Faith,  as  a  means,  might  do  for  the  pale 
face;  ipecac  was  the  medicine  for  the  red  man. 
The  former  was  too  mysterious  in  its  use  to  be 
relied  on  ;  they  could  have  an  active  consciousness 
— one  that  ought  to  satisfy  of  its  efficacy — in  the 
workings  of  the  other. 

Zeisberger  replied  that  the  God  whom  Wango- 
men  preached,  and  whose  servant  he  was,  was  no 
other  than  the  devil,  the  father  of  lies;  that  his  con 
ception  of  the  Great  Spirit  was  a  contemptible  one, 
and  that  his  views  of  the  disease  of  sin  were  as  ridic 
ulous  as  the  nostrum  proposed  for  its  eradication. 

A  Mohican  hearer  arose  to  testify  in  the  mis 
sionary's  behalf.  He  had  been  afflicted  to  that  de 
gree  that  nothing  could  comfort  him.  He  had  no 
rest  day  or  night,  and,  driven  by  distraction,  had 
left  his  wigwam  and  taken  to  the  woods.  His 

12 


134 


BLACK-ROBES. 


friends  suggested  ipecac,  as  Wangomen  had  done. 
He  had  given  the  emetic  an  honest  trial.  It  had 
dispossessed  him  of  his  dinner,  but  not  of  his 
despondency.  Then,  giving  heed  to  the  advice 
of  the  Black-Robe,  he  had  lifted  up  his  voice  to 
the  newly-revealed  Divinity,  imploring,  "O  God! 
who  madest  all  things,  I  know  not  where  Thou 
art,  but  I  have  heard  that  Thou  dwellest  in  heaven  : 
take  my  sorrow  and  grief  from  me !"  His  prayer 
was  heard ;  the  burden  was  lifted  from  his  heart, 
and  he  was  comforted.  The  controversy  resulted 
in  the  palpable  defeat  of  the  heathen  orator. 

Notwithstanding  the  resistance  of  the  native 
teachers,  and  the  more  bitter  opposition  of  the 
whisky-traders,  who,  venturously  penetrating  the 
waste  places  beyond  the  border,  had  not  allowed 
themselves  to  be  distanced,  as  has  been  seen,  by 
the  enterprise  of  the  Brethren,  the  work  to  which 
the  missionaries  had  consecrated  themselves  went 
steadily  on.  Villages,  near  and  remote,  among 
the  Shawanese  as  well  as  the  Delawares,  were 
visited;  many  of  the  prominent  men,  especially  of 
the  latter  tribe,  were  converted ;  the  gospel  was 
preached  in  the  Great  Council  of  trfe  capital ; 
White-Eye,  the  historically-famous  chief  captain 
of  the  tribe,  with  his  staff-officers,  Netawatwees 
and  Gelelemend,  or  Killbuck, — the  appellation  by 
which  he  is  locally  remembered, — became  advo 
cates  of  the  faith ;  heathen  usages  dropped  into 
disrepute;  equal  rights  and  privileges  with  those 


THE  MORAVIAN.  135 

enjoyed  by  the  rest  of  the  people  were  accorded 
the  Christians,  and  the  missionaries  were  granted 
full  liberty  to  exercise  the  functions  of  their  office, 
without  molestation  or  interference.  To  crown 
the  happy  achievements  of  this  reformatory  move 
ment,  the  nation,  by  the  act  of  council  assembled 
at  Goschachguenk,  the  new  capital, — Gekelemuk- 
pechuenk  having  been  abandoned  (1774), — formally 
resolved  to  receive  the  gospel.  An  embassy  was 
dispatched  to  Schonbrunn,  bearing  an  address  in 
which  this  determination  was  set  forth,  and  pray 
ing  the  missionaries  that  they  might  have  a  new 
town  built,  "that  those  of  their  people  who  be 
lieved  might  have  a  place  of  refuge ;"  not  a  town 
for  the  aged  and  grown  folk  only,  but  chiefly,  rather, 
for  the  young  people  and  children ;  for  it  was  their 
intention  "that  this  establishment  should  last  as 
long  as  Indians  exist."  A  suitable  spot  was  chosen 
on  the  east  side  of  the  Muskingum,  three  miles 
below  the  capital,  and  the  new  settlement  of  Lich- 
tenau  (1775)  was  established. 

The  mission  was  now  in  the  full  noon  of  pros 
perity.  Although,  from  the  unwholesome  expo 
sures  attending  the  opening  up  of  their  settlements 
out  of  the  rank  wilderness,  many  of  the  faithful  had 
sickened  and  died,  yet,  at  the  occupation  of  Lich- 
tenau,  their  membership  amounted  to  four  hundred 
and  fourteen  souls.  Schools,  provided  with  books 
translated  into  the  Delaware  tongue,  by  Zeisberger, 
for  the  use  of  the  children,  were  maintained  in  each 


1 36  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

of  their  towns.  The  public  preaching  of  the  gospel 
was  regularly  observed.  The  warriors  of  the  tribes 
gathered  in  throngs  at  the  chapels.  The  sick,  the 
bedridden,  women  in  dolore  laboris,  and  travelers 
arrested  on  their  way  by  sudden  illness,  begged  to 
be  carried  to  the  missionaries,  that  they  might  be 
comforted'in  their  extremity  by  the  hopeful  assur 
ances  of  inspiration.  The  future  presented  a  pros 
pect  luminous  with  promise,  and  the  hearts  of  the 
Brethren  were  glad  as  they  looked  to  the  seem 
ingly  near  fulfillment  of  their  fondest  anticipations. 
But  these  anticipations  were  not  to  be  realized. 


V. 


TROUBLE   AT   WORK    IN   THE   TENTS   ON   THE   MUS- 
KINGUM. 

IN  the  month  of  May,  1774,  a  hunting-party  of 
Indians,  with  their  wives  and  children,  planted 
their  temporary  lodges  at  the  mouth  of  Yellow 
Creek,  opposite  Baker's  Bottom,  on  the  Ohio.  A 
backwoodsman  of  the  name  of  Greathouse  visited 
the  encampment  in  an  ostensibly  friendly  manner, 
and  invited  the  party  to  join  him  in  a  drink.  They 
retired,  for  this  purpose,  to  the  cabin  of  an  acquaint 
ance  of  Greathouse's,  of  the  name  of  Baker.  Here 
they  were  plied  with  liquor  until  brought  help- 


THE  MORAVIAN.  137 

lessly  under  its  influence,  when  they  were  set  upon 
by  their  host  and  treacherously  massacred. 

The  sister  and  other  relatives  of  Tah-ga-jute, — a 
Mingo,  more  commonly  known,  in  connection  with 
a  famous  speech  of  very  doubtful  authenticity,  as 
Logan, — were  among  the  victims  of  this  outrage. 
Intelligence  of  the  calamity  having  reached  the  ears 
of  the  Mingo,  who,  at  the  time,  was  on  his  way  to 
Pittsburg  to  "  brighten"  his  friendship  with  the  offi 
cers  of  the  garrison  there,  his  feelings  were  excited 
to  an  intense  degree.  He  had  hitherto  been  the 
friend  of  the  white  man.  The  door  of  his  cabin 
had  been  always  open  to  receive  him,  and  shelter, 
food,  and  drink  freely  offered  for  his  entertainment. 
This  act  of  viperous  ingratitude  was  his  reward ! 
Stung  to  the  quick  at  a  requital  so  cruel,  he  dis 
carded  from  his  bosom  the  last  sentiment  of  com 
passion,  and  pledged  himself  to  revenge. 

As  the  story  of  the  massacre  was  carried  abroad 
and  told  in  the  villages  of  the  tribes,  a  correspond 
ing  fury  inflamed  the  hearts  of  the  natives.  The 
Shawanese  and  Mingos  organized  into  companies, 
and,  making  for  the  Virginia  border,  began  to  deal 
bloody  retribution  on  the  isolated  white  inhabitants 
of  that  newly-occupied  region.  The  successful 
issue  of  one  adventure  whetted  the  appetite  for 
another,  and  so,  with  fresh  eagerness  and  increas 
ing  activity,  the  incursions  continued. 

The  Delawares  were  strongly  urged  to  join  in 
the  rising.  Means,  open  and  secret,  were  employed 
12* 


1 3  8  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

to  force  them  into  co-operation.  Entreaty,  menace, 
derision,  were  resorted  to  in  turn,  and  with  a  de 
cided  prospect  of  success.  The  younger  warriors, 
when  their  manhood  was  appealed  to,  when  they 
were  threatened  to  be  branded  as  cowards  and 
repudiated  as  Shwonnaks,  became  restive,  and  de 
manded  of  their  elders  that  they  should  be  per 
mitted  to  take  up  arms.  The  chiefs  and  captains 
resisted  the  pressure- as  best  they  could,  compromis 
ing  the  demand,  which  they  dared  not  deny  and 
would  not  grant,  by  postponing  action  upon  it  from 
day  to  day,  and  maintaining  meanwhile  a  position 
of  neutrality.  This  indecisive  policy  of  the  council 
was  attributed  to  the  influence  of  the  missionaries, 
against  whom  the  enraged  insurgents  began  to 
direct  their  attacks.  Armed  bands  on  their  way 
to  and  from  the  border  would  parade  the  streets 
of  Schonbrunn  and  Gnadenhiitten,  exciting  the 
alarm  of  the  inhabitants  by  demonstrations  of 
violence  as  they  went,  or  filling  them  with  horror 
at  the  ghastly  display  of  the  bleeding  proofs  of 
achievement  on  their  return.  Fire  and  slaughter 
were  threatened  against  the  Congregations.  An 
army  of  a  thousand  men,  it  was  said,  was  organ 
ized  among  the  Shawanese,  who  were  presently  to 
march  down  on  the  Muskingum  towns,  and  if  the 
Christians  refused  to  enter  their  ranks  the  lives 
of  all  were  to  be  forfeited,  and  the  places  of  their 
habitation  made  waste  and  desolate.  Again,  it  was 
reported  that  the  Virginians,  supported  by  a  strong 


THE  MORAVIAN.  139 

body  of  troops,  sent  out  by  the  governor  of  that 
province,  were  under  way,  and  that  they  had  sig 
nified  their  intention  to  destroy  all  the  villages, 
beginning  with  those  of  the  converts  on  the  "  Elk- 
Eye,"  between  the  river  and  the  lakes. 

By  the  advice  of  his  colleagues,  Brother  Rothe, 
with  his  wife  and  two  children,  retiring  from  the 
scene  of  disturbance,  withdrew  to  Pittsburg,  and 
thence,  shortly  afterwards,  -to  Bethlehem.  The 
rest  of  the  missionaries  tarried  resolutely  at  their 
posts.  Precarious  as  was  their  predicament  in  the 
passage  of  these  events,  manifold  and  imminent  as 
were  the  perils  to  which  they  were  exposed,  the 
Congregations  were  mercifully  preserved  the  while, 
without  the  loss  of  a  life.  The  rising  was  sup 
pressed  early  in  the  ensuing  autumn,  and  quiet 
once  again  restored,  through  the  valor  of  the  Vir 
ginia  troops,  in  an  action  on,  or  near,  the  Kanawha. 

Disabled  by  defeat,  the  savages  retired  from  the 
contest,  but  not  with  a  mind  to  rest  tamely  under 
the  surrender.  Though  overcome,  they  were  not 
subdued,  and  the  terms  of  submission  to  which 
they  ass  nted,  it  was  mentally  reserved,  should  be 
respected  just  as  far  as  must  be,  and  no  further. 
Let  a  fair  prospect  of  success  open  anew,  and  they 
were  ready  to  lift  the  hatchet  and  take  to  the  war 
path  at  a  moment's  warning.  They  had  not  long 
to  wait. 

Although  distantly  removed  from  the  scenes  of 
its  principal  military  operations,  the  yeomanry  of 


140 


BLACK-ROBES. 


the  border  were  none  the  less  enthusiastically 
aroused,  nor  a  whit  more  dilatory  in  their  resolve 
to  take  up  the  rifle  for  the  national  defense  in  the 
great  Revolutionary  struggle,  than,  within  the  more 
immediate  line  of  action,  were  the  patriotic  colo 
nists  inhabiting  the  older,  settlements  along  the 
sea-shore.  Aware  of  the  vast  importance  of  the 
acquisition,  both  parties  in  the  contest  were  alike 
anxious  to  command  the  good  will — if  possible, 
the  co-operation — of  the  Indians,  and  for  this  pur 
pose  had  their  emissaries  early  abroad  and  actively 
at  work.  The  result  was  as  might  have  been  an 
ticipated.  Cherishing  the  recollection  of  their 
wrongs,  and  eager  in  the  hope,  under  the  proposed 
alliance,  of  a  more  prosperous  faring  in  a  new 
attempt  at  retaliation,  the  Shawanese  were  won, 
with  scarce  a  wooing,  to  the  side  of  the  British. 
Similar  motives  had  their  weight  in  bringing  about 
a  like  decision  on  the  part  of  the  Iroquois  and 
Hurons. 

The  concurrence  of  the  Delawares  was  all  that 
was  needed  to  complete  a  general  confederacy,  and 
place  the  tribes  of  the  wilderness,  as  an  undivided 
body,  in  hostile  attitude  against  the  colonies.  All 
the  arts  and  devices  which  "untutored"  ingenuity 
could  invent  were  employed  to  invite — to  entrap — 
to  force  them  into  the  combination.  Their  patriot 
ism  was  appealed  to,  their  pride,  their  fiercer  pas 
sions,  and  particularly,  as  the  most  feasible  point 
of  approach,  their  fears.  "  Keep  your  shoes  in 


THE  MORAVIAN.  141 

readiness,"  came  a  warning  message  from  the  Hu- 
rons,  "  to  join  the  warriors."  Following  the  herald 
that  bore  it  arrived  an  embassy  of  twenty  deputies, 
who,  with  a  thrice-repeated  offer  of  the  war-belt, 
demanded  their  assistance,  declaring  that  all  the 
nations  besides,  below  and  beyond  Lake  Erie,  were 
united  as  one  man  for  the  fight.  Again,  the  action 
of  a  general  council  held  in  Detroit  was  published 
throughout  their  towns,  where,  without  a  dissent 
ing  voice,  it  had  been  resolved  that  the  hatchet 
should  fall  on  the  head  of  every  one  who  refused 
to  take  it  up.  No  neutrals  were  to  be  tolerated. 
To  intimidate  them  further,  reports  were  circulated 
that  a  general  had  arrived  in  Pittsburg,  on  his 
way  to  the  Muskingum,  who  was  resolved  to 
destroy  the  whole  race,  without  quarter  to  any 
red  man,  friend  or  foe,  heathen  or  Christian.  A 
trio  of  white  renegades,  notorious  in  border  his 
tory,  Simon  Girty,  Alexander  McKee,and  Matthew 
Elliott,  visited  the  villages,  and,  repeating  the  lying 
rumors  which  had  already  been  put  afloat,  stated 
that  it  was  the  fixed  intention  of  the  Virginians, 
after  having  first  persuaded  the  Indians,  by  false 
but  fine-sounding  representations,  into  a  sense  of 
security,  to  take  advantage  of  their  confidence  and 
commit  wholesale  slaughter  upon  them  all.  The 
traitors  then  exhorted  them  to  rise,  and  turn  out  to 
a  man  against  the  intruders ;  not  to  suffer  them  to 
cross  the  Ohio,  but  to  fall  upon  them  wherever 
they  should  be  found,  or  their  country  would  be 


1 42  BLACK-ROBES. 

lost  to  its  legitimate  owners  forever.     The  state 
ments  thus  propagated  had  their  effect. 

Captain  Pipe,  a  Delaware  hatchet-bearer  of  in 
fluence,  had  all  along  bitterly  contended  against 
the  introduction  of  Christianity  into  his  tribe.  His 
wife,  a  prophetess  of  the  Wangomen  school,  for 
some  time  shared  with  him  in  his  opposition, 
openly  protesting  that  the  missionaries  were  de 
ceivers,  and  that  their  religion  was  false,  as  she 
ought  to  know,  who  had  been  in  the  mansions 
of  the  Spirits  and  seen  the  strawberries  and  the 
bilberries,  as  large  as  apples  and  in  great  plenty, 
that  flourished  in  the  Elysian  gardens  ;  but  being 
present,  on  a  certain  occasion,  at  the  baptism  of  a 
child,  "the  Holy  Ghost  labored  powerfully  on  her 
conscience,"  and  she  was  converted.  Her  change 
of  heart,  instead  of  appeasing  the  malevolence  of 
her  husband,  only  confirmed  him  the  more  in  his 
hostility.  He  conspired  with  the  mischief-mongers 
of  the  Shawanese  to  breed  disaffection  among  the 
young  men  of  the  nation.  He  obtained  a  supre 
macy  over  the  Monseys,  a  discontented  and  trou 
blesome  tribe  of  his  own  people,  a  party  of  whom, 
at  his  instigation,  visited  Schonbrunn  and  attempted 
to  sow  the  seed  of  dissension  among  its  inhabitants. 
He  visited  the  converts  in  person,  and  by  continued 
endeavors  tried  as  he  could  to  unsettle  their  con 
victions  and  bring  them  back  to  their  old  supersti 
tions.  Unhappily,  his  labors  were  too  successful. 
Newallike,  a  chief  who  had  come  from  the  Susque- 


THE  MORA  VI AN.  143 

hanna  to  join  the  Brotherhood,  yielding  to  the 
tempter,  relapsed  into  heathenism,  followed  in  his 
apostasy  by  quite  a  band  of  seceders  from  among 
the  believers.  So  great,  indeed,  was  the  defection, 
and  so  unmistakable  were  the  demonstrations  of 
violence  growing  out  of  it,  that  Brother  Hecke- 
welder,  who  had  charge  of  the  Congregation,  with 
the  faithful  few  left  of  his  flock,  abandoned  the 
town,  after  having  torn  down  the  chapel  to  prevent 
its  desecration,  and  retired  to  Lichtenau. 

But,  adroitly  as  the  plans  of  Captain  Pipe  were 
managed,  the  interests  of  peace  and  good  order,  on 
the  other  hand,  were  not  left  to  languish  for  lack 
of  good  championship.  Netawatwees,  the  head 
chief  of  the  nation,  wielded  steadily  the  high  influ 
ence  at  his  control  in  that  direction  while  he  lived, 
and  it  was  while  on  a  mission,  in  pursuance  of  the 
same  policy,  to  Tamanend  (Col.  George  Morgan, 
the  excellent  Indian  agent),  at  Pittsburg,  that  he 
unfortunately  died.  The  vacancy  which  he  left  in 
the  council  of  his  people,  however,  was  equally  well 
supplied,  at  least,  by  Coquehagechton,  or  White- 
Eye,  the  chief  of  the  captains,  than  whom  there  was 
not  a  man  among  the  rulers  of  the  Lenni-Lenape 
of  more  commanding  authority.  Indeed,  it  was  to 
his  interference,  pressed  with  uncompromising  de 
termination,  that  the  Christians  were  indebted  for 
the  restoration  of  the  favor  of  the  head  chief,  which 
at  one  time,  through  the  machinations  of  their  ene- 

o 

mies,  he  had  been  induced  to  withdraw.     At  the 


144  BLACK-ROBES. 

present  crisis  White-Eye  not  only  declared  against 
intermeddling  at  all,  as  a  nation,  in  the  quarrels 
prevailing,  but  insisted  that  the  Christian  Indians 
and  their  teachers,  against  whom  the  ill  will  of  the 
war-party  was  especially  directed,  should  be 'guar 
anteed  full  safety  and  protection.  While  he  was 
willing  to  bear  the  opprobrium  of  being  considered 
weak-kneed  as  regarded  troublous  complications 
outside,  he  at  the  same  time  let  it  be  clearly  un 
derstood  that  he  would  not  be  slow  to  draw  his 
knife  in  defense  of  the  just  privileges  of  his  people, 
without  regard  to  creed,  among  themselves.  Ri 
valry,  as  a  consequence,  grew  hot  and  high  between 
the  contending  parties. 

Wars  are  always  popular — in  their  kindling  pro 
cess  ;  during  the  period  of  new  buttons  and  fresh 
paint,  of  foils  and  blank  cartridges,  and  while  the 
rule  of  misrule  is  tolerated  (the  better  to  entice  re 
cruits)  at  mustering-stations,  along  thoroughfares, 
and  in  camps.  The  savage,  neither  more  nor  less 
human,  or  inhuman,  than  his  pale-faced  brother, 
is  captivated  as  readily  by  the  pomp  and  cir 
cumstance  of  military  preparation  as  the  most 
exemplary  Christian  that  ever  put  on  cockade, 
or  paraded  a  highway,  or  drained  a  tankard,  on 
the  eve  of  a  crusade.  Captain  Pipe,  hence,  as 
the  leading  spirit  of  the  belligerent  interest,  was 
the  popular  favorite;  but  White-Eye  possessed 
the  counter-advantage  of  an  all-prevailing  in 
fluence  among  the  men  of  chosen  character  who 


THE  MORAVIAN.  145 

i 

directed  the  counsels  and  shaped  the  policy  of 
the  tribes. 

The  arrival  of  Girty  was  a  godsend  to  Pipe.  His 
declarations  as  to  the  hostile  intentions  of  the  Vir 
ginians  were  taken  as  confirmatory  of  what  had 
been  urged  all  along  by  the  captain,  but  which, 
from  a  well-known  proclivity  of  the  witness,  had 
been  received  with  some  degree  of  allowance,  and, 
to  that  extent,  failed  in  the  desired  effect.  The 
people  were  exasperated,  and  grew  clamorous  for 
war.  Guerrilla  bands  were  organized;  plundering 
excursions  undertaken ;  retreats  of  hunters,  and 
trappers,  and  traders  sought  out,  despoiled,  and 
devastated ;  and  death  by  rifle-shot  and  blow  of 
tomahawk  dealt  upon  more  than  one  among  the 
surprised  border-men. 

Affairs  were  on  the  verge  of  irretrievable  dis 
order,  when  White-Eye  called  a  general  council 
of  the  nation.  The  wise  men  of  the  tribes  assem 
bled,  and  before  them  the  chief  of  the  captains 
arose,  and  pleaded  eloquently  in  the  behalf  of 
peace.  His  hearers  would  not  be  entirely  per 
suaded.  Finding  that,  for  the  present,  nothing 
better  could  be  accomplished,  he  earnestly  advised 
against  undue  haste  ;  urging,  before  resolving  on 
a  final  decision,  for  a  delay  of  ten  days,  that  so 
much  time  at  least  might  be  allowed  for  further  in 
formation — from  Tamanend  at  Pittsburg,  possibly ; 
at  all  events,  irom  some  source  more  worthy  of 
confidence  than  Girty  or  either  of  his  fellows. 


146  BLACK-ROBES. 

The  captain  charged,  in  reply,  that  White-Eye 
was  in  secret  league  with  the  Virginians,  and  that 
it  was  in  the  interest  of  these  his  friends — enabling 
them  thereby  the  less  hurriedly  and  more  effect 
ually  to  complete  their  plans — that  the  postpone 
ment  of  action  was  proposed.  He  closed  his  speech 
with  the  offer  of  a  resolution  to  the  effect  "  that 
every  man  should  be  declared  an  enemy  to  the 
nation  who  should  throw  an  obstacle  in  the  way 
that  might  tend  to  prevent  the  taking  up  arms 
immediately." 

So  pointed  an  impeachment  of  his  loyalty — for 
it  was  evidently  aimed  at  him — provoked  an  impas 
sioned  rejoinder  from  White-Eye.  "  If  you  mean  to 
go  out  in  earnest,"  said  he,  "  you  shall  not  go  with 
out  me.  I  have  advocated  peace  measures  to  save 
the  nation  from  destruction;  but  if  you  believe  me 
wrong,  and  are  determined  to  give  more  credit  to 
vagabond  fugitives,  whom  you  know  to  be  such, 
then  your  decision  is  mine;  I  shall  be  with  you — not 
like  the  bear-hunter,"  with  a  scornful  glance  at  Cap 
tain  Pipe,  "  who  sets  the  dogs  on  the  animal  to  be 
beaten  about  with  his  paws,  while  he  keeps  at  a  safe 
distance.  No;  I  will  myself  lead  you  on,— place 
me  in  the  front, — and  be  the  first  to  fall  in  the  fight. 
You  have  only  to  determine  on  whatj^sw  will  do," 
he  concluded.  "  My  mind  is  made  up  not  to  sur 
vive  my  nation ;  for  I  would  not  spend  the  remainder 
of  a  miserable  life  in  bewailing  the  total  destruction 
of  a  brave  people  who  deserve  a  better  fate." 


THE  MORAVIAN.  147 

The  orator  gained  his  point ;  Pipe's  resolution 
failed ;  the  ten  days'  delay  was  granted.  And  now 
the  opposing  parties,  in  tremulous  suspense,  as  in 
consistent  rumor  from  time  to  time  gave  tongue 
to  dubious  tidings,  awaited  the  issue  of  the  truce. 
Again  and  again  the  sun  rose  and  set ;  again  and 
again  morning  brightened  into  noon,  noon  deep 
ened  into  dark ;  night  and  light  followed  in  their 
order,  until  the  skies  of  the  east  were  goldening 
in  the  dawn  of  the  ninth  day,  and  still  no  message 
from  Tamanend, — no  assurances,  for  better  or  for 
worse,  from  their  white  friends  at  Pittsburg.  The 
war-faction  was  jubilant.  The  encampments  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  towns  grew  hideous  with  the 
noise  of  revelry  ;  the  rattle  of  drums  and  the  storm 
of  voices  mingled  discordantly  in  the  chant  of  their 
battle-songs.  The  Feast  of  Dogs — a  repast  sacred 
to  the  savage  Mars,  and  only  partaken  of  on  the 
eve  of  a  campaign — was  prepared.  The  heads  of 
the  warriors  were  shaved  afresh,  their  faces  be 
smeared  with  red  and  black,  their  scalp -locks 
anointed  with  tallow  and  tipped  with  the  white 
plumage  from  the  crest  of  the  eagle,  while  all 
about  the  dusky  masses  thronged  and  pressed  and 
roared,  active  in  the  busy,  boisterous  engagements 
of  ready-making  for  the  war-path. 

It  so  happened  that  the  Brethren  at  Bethlehem, 
anxious  about  the  missionaries,  from  whom  for 
several  months  they  had  received  no  intelligence, 
had  commissioned  two  of  their  number — Hecke- 


I48  BLACK-ROBES. 

welder,  with  them  on  a  visit,  and  John  Shabosh — 
t:>  proceed,  if  possible,  to  the  Muskingum,  but,  at 
all  events,  as  far  as  Pittsburg,  ascertain  their  situa 
tion,  and,  as  circumstances  indicated  the  need,  to 
provide  for  their  relief.  Arriving  at  Pittsburg,  they 
were  first  informed  of  the  critical  state  of  affairs  in 
the  Indian  country;  how  that  Girty  had  fled  there, 
and  was  striving  by  false  representations  to  incite 
the  savages  to  insurrection,  and  how  Colonel  Mor 
gan,  and  the  officers  with  him,  had  tried  to  send 
messages  of  peace  to  the  Delawares,  but  inef 
fectually,  the  runners  whom  they  would  have 
employed  declining  the  service,  through  fear  of 
roving  gangs  of  insurgents  that  infested  the  wil 
derness.  Heckewelder  was  advised  against  pur 
suing  his  journey;  but  in  view  of  the  consequence 
of  his  mission, — deemed  all  the  more  important 
because  of  the  very  reasons  pressed  against  its 
prosecution, — he  decided,  with  his  colleague,  upon 
the  venture. 

At  eleven  o'clock  at  night  on  the  third  day  after 
bidding  adieu  to  their  friends  at  Pittsburg,  merci 
fully  conducted  by  the  hand  of  Providence  through 
the  perilous  exigencies  of  the  way,  the  reverend 
envoys  reached  Gnadenhiitten  in  safety.  Being 
informed  of  the  proceedings  of  council,  and  that 
to-morrow  only  intervened  before  the  final  day  of 
the  term  of  suspension  agreed  upon,  after  a  brief  rest 
they  arose  at  three  o'clock  next  morning,  mounted 
fresh  horses,  swam  the  Muskingum,  and,  pushing 


THE  MORAVIAN. 


149 


speedily  forward,   in   the   course   of  a    few  hours 
halted  within  view  of  Goschachguenk. 

Great  was  the  chagrin,  not  to  say  mortification, 
of  Captain  Pipe  at  this  inopportune  arrival.  He 
could  readily  calculate,  without  waiting  for  its  de 
velopment,  upon  the  result, — defeat  to  his  plans, 
demolishment  to  his  expectations,  shame  and  ca 
lamity  to  himself.  The  reaction  would  be  sudden 
and  not  agreeable  to  contemplate  when  the  war 
riors  found  that  they  had  been  duped  by  his  repre 
sentations  ;  that  their  revelries  were  premature, 
their  recourse  to  paint  and  tallow  precipitate,  and 
their  immolation  of  victims  a  superfluous  waste  of 
dogs;  in  short,  that  they  had  made  themselves 
ridiculous. 

The  people  soon  gathered  about  the  missiona 
ries,  anxious  to  hear  what  they  might  have  to  say. 
Heckewelder,  after  White-Eye  had  notified  him  of 
the  charges  made  by  Pipe,  invited  a  meeting  of  the 
council,  and  briefly  laid  before  them  the  news  of 
which  he  was  the  messenger.  He  told  them  of  the 
achievements  of  the  colonial  troops;  of  the  surren 
der  of  General  Burgoyne;  of  the  despondency  of 
the  British ;  of  the  confidence  of  Congress  in  the 
success  of  the  Revolution ;  and,  as  more  nearly 
affecting  the  interests  of  his  hearers,  of  the  most 
friendly  assurances  which,  on  behalf  of  the  Amer 
ican  people,  he  was  delegated  to  deliver  by  Tama- 
nend.  White-Eye  followed  the  missionary  in  a 
speech  of  some  length,  and  with  the  effect  that 
13* 


150  BLACK-ROBES. 

might  have  been  expected  from  so  popular  and 
eloquent  an  orator.  Pipe  attempted  no  reply,  but 
quietly  withdrew  from  the  assembly,  and  presently 
from  the  town.  His  scheme  had  miscarried.  To 
prevent  an  attempt  at  its  repetition  elsewhere,  the 
chief  captain  prepared  a  message,  which  was  dis 
patched,  by  runners,  to  the  Shawanese  villages  oa 
the  Scioto  :  —  "  Grandchildren  !  Ye  Shawanese  ! 
Some  days  ago  a  flock  of  birds,  that  had  come  on 
from  the  east,  lit  at  Goschachguenk,  imposing  a 
song  of  theirs  upon  us,  which  song  had  wellnigh 
proved  our  ruin !  Should  these  birds,  which  on 
leaving  us  took  their  flight  towards  Scioto,  en 
deavor  to  impose  a  song  on  you  likewise,  do  not 
listen  to  them,  for  they  lie !" 

For  a  season  following  the  failure  of  this  insur 
rectionary  experiment,  the  peace  of  the  settlements 
remained  undisturbed.  Gnadenhutten  and  Schon- 
brunn,  abandoned  during  the  troublous  time,  were 
reoccupied.  The  new  town  of  Salem,  five  miles 
below  Gnadenhutten,  was  built  (1780).  Many  of 
the  converts  who  had  been  carried  away  by  the 
defection  at  Schonbrunn  repented  of  their  apostasy 
and  were  restored  to  the  communion.  The  mis 
sionaries  and  teachers,  conspicuous  among  whom 
was  Glikkikan,  the  convert  of  Kaskaskunk,  dili 
gently  and  profitably  strove  in  their  labors  of  love 
among  the  unbelievers.  Numbers  were  awakened, 
"overpowered  by  the  grace  of  God,"  and  made 
subjects  of  baptism.  White-Eye  was  brought 


THE  MORAVIAN.  151 

under  conviction,  but  excused  himself  from  join 
ing  the  church,  on  the  ground  that  the  act  would 
be  inconsistent  with  his  profession.  When  he  could 
cease  to  be  a  politician  he  would  be  a  Christian. 
He  proposed  to  disembarrass  himself  of  the  hinder- 
ance  6y  retiring  from  public  service  as  soon  as 
possible;  but  the  praiseworthy  intention  failed  in 
the  postponement.  Shortly  after,  on  the  march 
with  General  Mclntosh's  army  to  erect  a  fort  at 
Tuscarawas  for  'the  protection  of  the  peaceable 
Indians,  he  was  seized  with  the  smallpox  and 
died.  His  death  was  an  irreparable  loss  to  the 
Moravians,  and  a  calamitous  one,  as  events  deter 
mined,  to  the  nation  whose  affairs,  amid  its  tur 
moils,  he  had  administered  with  so  much  prudence 
and  sagacity. 


VI. 


CAPTAIN  PIPE  PLANS  NEW  MISCHIEF,  AND  WHAT  CAME 
OF  HIS  SCHEMES. 

WITH  the  ever-lively  recollection  to  stimu 
late  him  of  his  mortifying  discomfiture  in 
council  by  White-Eye,  the  intelligence  of  the  death 
of  that  renowned  chief  no  sooner  reached  the  ears 
of  Captain  Pipe  than,  relieved  by  the  circumstance 
of  the  fears  which,  in  spite  of  the  opposite  prompt 
ing's  of  a  more  intense  but  irresolute  sense  of 


1 52  BLACK-ROBES. 

wounded  pride,  had  held  him  back,  he  set  himself 
with  ready  alacrity  to  redeem  his  fame,  recover  his 
influence,  and  restore  into  pattern  again  the  broken 
threads  of  the  old  conspiracy.  "Behold  !"  he  ex 
claimed,  exultantly,  as  he  reappeared  in  the  circles 
from  which  he  had  been  ejected ;  "  Coquehagech- 
ton  is  gone!  The  Great  Spirit  has  put  him  out  of 
the  way  that  the  nation  may  be  saved !" 

Gelelemend,  or  Killbuck,  who  with  two  coh 
leagues,  upon  the  decease  of  vVhite-Eye,  was 
placed  at  the  head  of  public  affairs,  to  serve  during 
the  minority  of  the  legitimate  heir  to  the  head- 
chiefship,  although  a  man  of  irreproachable  worth, 
was  far  from  equal  to  the  responsibilities  of  his  new 
position.  He  was  not  to  be  deceived  by  the  rhet 
oric,  nor  tempted  by  the  corrupt  approaches,  of  the 
insurrectionary  leader,  but  he  had  not  the  courage 
to  face  him  on  the  challenge  and  meet  menace 
with  defiance.  Under  pressure  of  that  argument 
he  yielded,  deserting  his  people,  and  retiring  with 
his  colleagues  upon  the  protection  of  the  white 
friends  at  Pittsburg,  But  one  obstacle  remained 
as  an  interference  to  the  complete  accomplish 
ment  of  the  captain's  designs.  If  the  missionaries 
could  be  induced  to  follow  the  example  of  Gelele 
mend,  then  the  field  would  be  left  open,  and  little 
doubt  remained  but  that,  aided  by  his  staff  of  coun 
selors,  Girty,  Elliott,  and  McKee,  and  supported 
by  his  cut-throat  body-guard  of  Monseys,  he  could 
force  the  neutral  party  to  terms,  and  have  the  Dela- 


THE  MORA  VIAN.  1 5  3 

wares,  as  a  nation,  committed  to  the  war.  The 
missionaries,  however,  had  made  up  their  minds  to 
stay  by  their  Congregations,  and  were  not  to  be 
persuaded  or  intimidated.  Attempts  were  made 
upon  their  lives.  Senseman  was  attacked,  but 
fortunately  rescued  by  the  timely  arrival  of  two  of 
his  neighbors,  while  out  gathering  greens,  one  day, 
in  a  field  near  Schonbrunn.  Edwards  and  Young 
narrowly  escaped  being  shot  while  planting  pota 
toes  at  Gnadenhiitten ;  while  Heckewelder  was 
waylaid  on  different  occasions,  and  only  preserved 
by  special  interposition  of  Providence. 

Finding  his  efforts  ineffectual  to  either  win  over 
the  converts  or  compel  the  voluntary  withdrawal 
of  their  teachers,  Pipe  resolved  upon  a  new  course 
of  procedure.  He  visited  the  English  governor, 
Arend  Schuyler  de  Peyster,  at  Detroit,  and  in  an 
interview  with  him  represented  the  Christians  as 
partisans  in  the  American  cause,  who  were  acting 
as  spies,  and  through  their  missionaries  carrying  on 
a  secret  correspondence  with  the  enemy,  to  the 
serious  detriment  of  the  English  interest.  He  then 
suggested  that  an  order  should  be  issued  for  their 
removal  from  the  Muskingum  to  some  quarter 
farther  north,  more  nearly  within  scope  of  loyal 
oversight,  and  beyond  convenient  reach  of  com 
munication  with  the  Yankees.  The  governor 
approved  of  the  proposition,  and  sent  a  commis 
sioner  to  Niagara  to  lay  the  matter  before  a  council 
of  the  Iroquois,  then  and  there  in  session,  and  to 


154  BLACK- ROBES. 

secure  their  agency  in  its  execution.  The  Iroquois 
were  willing  that  the  refractory  Congregations 
"should  be  made  soup  of,"  and  so  resolved,  but 
devolved  the  brewing  of  the  broth  on  their  neigh 
bors  the  Chippewas  and  Ottowas.  These  tribes 
declined  the  task.  The  half-king  of  the  Hurons 
was  then  appealed  to,  and,  from  motives  of  compas 
sion,  as  he  declared, — "to  save  the  believing  Indians 
from  total  destruction," — accepted  the  service. 

The  force  organized  for  the  enterprise  assembled 
at  Sandusky,  where  they  were  joined  by  Pipe  and 
his  party.  A  war-feast  was  held  preparatory  to 
action,  a  roasted  ox  forming  the  repast ;  and  when 
the  revelries  appropriate  to  the  occasion  were 
ended,  ammunition  was  served  out  to  the  men  by 
Elliott,  and  the  band,  divided  into  companies,  began 
its  march. 

In  the  afternoon  of  August  the  loth  (1781),  the 
force,  numbering  one  hundred  and  forty,  but  soon 
recruited  to  over  three  hundred  men,  with  Pipe 
and  the  half- king  at  its  head,  and  bearing  the 
British  flag,  was  seen,  to  the  consternation  of  its  in 
habitants,  approaching  the  town  of  Salem.  A  mes 
sage  was  sent,  conveying  assurances  of  safety,  and 
requesting  the  Christians  to  appoint  a  place  con 
venient  to  the  three  settlements  where  a  conference 
could  be  held.  Gnadenhiitten  was  designated,  on  an 
accommodating  plateau,  in  the  vicinity  of  which,  on 
the  day  following,  the  half-king  ordered  the  pitch 
ing  of  his  tents.  The  formal  interview  between  the 


THE  MORAVIAN.  155 

parties  took  place  on  the  2Oth.  The  half-king 
delivered  the  opening  speech  of  the  occasion: 

"  Cousins !  Ye  believing  Indians  in  Gnaden- 
hiitten,  Schonbrunn,  and  Salem  !  I  am  much  con 
cerned  on  your  account,  perceiving  that  you  live 
in  a  very  dangerous  spot.  Two  powerful,  angry, 
and  merciless  Gods  stand  ready,  opening  their  jaws 
wide  against  each  other:  you  are  sitting  down 
between  both,  and  are  thus  in  danger  of  being  de 
voured  and  ground  to  powder  by  the  teeth  of  either 
one  or  the  other,  or  of  both.  It  is  therefore  not 
advisable  for  you  to  stay  here  any  longer.  Con 
sider  your  young  people,  your  wives  and  your 
children,  and  preserve  their  lives,  for  here  they 
must  all  perish.  I  therefore  take  you  by  the  hand, 
lift  you  up,  and  place  you  in,  or  near,  my  dwelling, 
where  you  will  be  safe  and  dwell  in  peace.  Do 
not  stand  looking  at  your  plantations  and  houses, 
but  arise  and  follow  me  !  Take  also  your  teachers 
with  you,  and  worship  God  in  the  place  to  which  I 
shall  lead  you,  as  you  have  been  accustomed  to  do. 
You  shall  likewise  find  provisions,  and  our  father 
beyond  the  lake  [the  governor  at  Detroit]  will  care 
for  you.  This  is  my  message,  and  I  am  come 
hither  purposely  to  deliver  it." 

The  orator,  having  ended,  presented  a  string  of 
wampum  as  a  minute  of  the  delivery.  The  mis 
sionaries  requested  twenty-four  hours  for  reflection, 
and,  having  considered  the  proposition,  offered, 
next  day,  their  reply: 


156  BLACK-ROBES. 

"Uncle!  Ye  captains  of  the  Delawares  and 
Monseys,  our  friends  and  countrymen  !  Ye  Shaw- 
anese,  our  nephews,  and  all  ye  other  people  here 
assembled  !  We  have  heard  your  words,  but  have 
not  yet  seen  the  danger  so  great  that  we  might 
not  stay  here.  We  keep  peace  with  all  men,  and 
have  nothing  to  do  with  the  war,  nor  do  we  wish 
or  desire  anything  but  to  be  permitted  to  enjoy 
peace  and  rest.  You  see  yourselves  that  we  cannot 
rise  immediately  and  go  with  you,  for  we  are  heavy, 
and  time  is  required  to  prepare  for  it.  But  we  will 
keep  and  consider  your  words,  and  let  you,  Uncle, 
know  our  answer  next  winter  after  harvest.  Upon 
this  you  may  rely." 

The  reply  was  not  at  all  satisfactory  to  Captain 
Pipe,  who  insisted  with  the  half-king  that  he  should 
cease  further  attempts  at  persuasion  and  resort  to 
compulsory  measures.  A  council  of  war  was  called. 
As  the  result  of  its  deliberations,  the  direct  ques 
tion  was  put  to  the  Christians  :  "  Will  you  go  with 
us,  or  not  ?"  They  repeated  the  answer  they  had 
already  given,  and  added  that  they  intended  to 
abide  by  it. 

A  few  days  afterwards,  Zeisberger,  Senseman, 
and  Heckewelder  were  walking  together  through 
one  of  their  gardens,  along  a  way  that  led  to  the 
burying-ground  of  the  town,  when  a  party  of  Wy- 
andots,  who  were  concealed  behind  a  fence,  sprang 
up,  seized  upon  them,  and  dragged  them  as  pris 
oners  into  the  camp,  where  they  were  met  with 


THE  MORAVIAN.  157 

derisive  greetings,  and  hailed  with  the  chant  of 
the  death-song.  They  were  then  brought  before 
the  half-king  and  his  chiefs,  when  the  proposition 
was  again  made, — "Would  they  go  to  Sandusky, 
encourage  their  converts  to  go  along,  and  not  at 
tempt  to  run  away  from  their  escort  on  the  route  ?" 
With  no  alternative  at  choice,  they  promised,  and 
were  set  at  liberty. 

Short  space  was  granted  in  which  to  make  prep 
aration  for  the  journey,  but  such  arrangements  as 
could  be  effected  were  undertaken  without  delay. 
Under  cover  of  the  night,  the  implements  of  labor 
most  valuable  to  them — plow-irons,  harrow-teeth, 
hoes,  saws,  and  culinary-ware — were  carried  se 
cretly  to  the  woods  and  buried.  Having  thus  dis 
posed  of  the  articles  most  valuable  to  them,  but 
not  conveniently  portable,  they  loaded  their  canoes 
with  provisions,  and  packed  their  horses  with  such 
lighter  goods  as  were  indispensable,  especially  for 
the  comfort  of  the  women  and  children,  on  the 
way.  On  the  morning  of  the  nth  of  September 
the  flitting  Congregations  turned  their  backs  upon 
the  Muskingum  villages, — Gnadenhutten,  Schon- 
brunn,  and  Salem, — endeared  to  them  by  so  many 
blessed  associations,  and  began  their  weary  march 
to  the  far-away  scene  allotted  for  their  abode  on  the 
marshy  lowlands  of  the  lake-shore.  Quite  all  the 
possessions  which  they  had  accumulated  by  years 
of  patient  industry  and  thrift — the  greater  portion 
of  their  cattle,  their  herds  of  swine,  their  broad 
14 


158 


BLACK-ROBES. 


acres  of  maize,  ripe  but  ungathered  in  the  fields  of 
the  valleys  which  they  had  brought  under  culture, 
the  gardens  with  their  yield  of  fruits  and  vegetables, 
and,  equally  regretted,  and  more  in  the  end  to  be 
deplored,  because  never  recovered,  books  and  man 
uscripts  of  the  missionaries — were  left  behind  at 
the  mercy  of  the  ruthless  horde  of  plunderers,  who, 
ere  the  exiles  were  fairly  out  of  view,  had  begun 
their  work  of  destruction,  tearing  down  the  fences 
of  the  inclosures,  and  turning  their  horses  in  upon 
the  corn. 

On  the  nth  of  October  they  reached  the  San- 
dusky.  Their  first  care  was  to  erect  cabins  for  their 
protection  through  the  winter,  a  bitter  foretaste 
of  which  they  already  experienced  in  the  chilling 
blasts  that  swept  the  naked  wastes  in  midst  of 
which  lay  their  appointed  quarters.  These  shelters, 
because  of  the  scarcity  of  timber,  and  the  distance 
across  the  marshes  from  which  the  nearest  avail 
able  supplies  had  to  be  brought,  were  very  small, 
poorly  heated,  from  lack  of  space  for  fireplaces, 
and  entirely  without  flooring,  the  water  flooding 
the  interior  as  the  recurring  thaws  of  the  season 
cracked  the  frozen  soil  and  opened  up  sluices  under 
the  foundation-logs  of  the  walls  for  the  inundation. 
As  the  weeks  glided  by,  their  limited  stores  of  pro 
vision  became  exhausted.  The  few  cows  which 
they  had  been  allowed  to  bring  with  them,  with 
out  food,  failed  to  yield  milk,  and  began  to  die  of 
hunger.  To  support  life,  recourse  was  had  to  the 


THE  MORA  VIAN.  1 59 

carcasses  of  the  starved  cattle,  or  to  roots  and  ber 
ries,  gathered,  all  shriveled  as  they  were,  from  the 
bushes,  or  painfully  dug  out  of  the  hard  ground. 
It  was  a  time  of  terrible  trial  to  the  poor  Mora 
vians.  The  strong  among  them  found  their  ener 
gies  rapidly  giving  way;  famished  children  wept 
and  prayed  and  raved  for  bread ;  while  nursing 
mothers,  scarce  able  to  maintain  a  wretched  being 
of  their  own,  could  afford  no  nourishment  for  the 
helpless  starvelings  at  their  bosoms,  lying  there 
wailing  and  dying  in  their  arms.  It  became  pain 
fully  evident  that  immediate  action  must  be  taken 
for  the  relief  of  the  suffering  community.  A  gen 
eral  consultation  was  held,  the  result  of  which  was 
the  appointment  of  a  deputation  consisting  of  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  men,  women,  and  children, 
to  return  to  the  Muskingum  and  procure  supplies 
out  of  what  might  remain  of  the  unharvested  crops 
on  the  abandoned  plantations  of  that  river.  The 
party  was  organized,  and,  after  an  affectionate  in 
terchange  of  adieus  with  the  friends  that  were  to 
remain  behind,  started  upon  its  errand. 

Meanwhile,  upon  a  citation  from  De  Peyster, 
Zeisberger,  Senseman,  Heckewelder,  and  Edwards, 
led  by  the  half-king, — Girty,  who  was  to  have  as 
sisted  him,  being  fortunately  absent,  with  a  band 
of  Wyandots,  on  a  raid  along  the  Ohio  bottoms, — 
had  repaired  to  Detroit.  The  commandant  received 
them  kindly,  lodged  them  and  provided  for  their 
wants  with  praiseworthy  liberality.  On  the  appear- 


1 60  BLA  CK-ROBES. 

ance  of  their  accuser,  Captain  Pipe,  they  were  sum 
moned  before  De  Peyster  for  examination.  The 
captain  failing  in  his  anticipated  proofs  of  the  trea 
sonable  correspondence  complained  of,  and,  in  fact, 
after  some  hesitation,  making  a  complete  retraction 
of  his  charges,  public  declaration  was  made  of  their 
innocence,  and  the  missionaries  were  not  only  set 
at  liberty,  but  commended  for  their  fearless  devo 
tion  to  the  noble  and  disinterested  work  to  which 
they  had  dedicated  their  lives. 

Sad  as  was  the  trial  of  separation  that  day  when 
the  relief-party,  appointed  to  go  to  the  old  settle 
ments  for  food,  started  on  their  journey,  it  was  not 
what  it  would  have  been  could  a  suspicion  have 
arisen  of  the  consequences — merely  as  a  possible 
contingency — that  were  to  follow  the  enterprise. 
Prowling  bands  of  savages  on  the  one  hand,  and 
gangs  of  rude  border-men  on  the  other,  were  known 
to  be  abroad,  but  it  was  not  anticipated  that  they 
would  be  encountered  in  any  force,  or,  if  they 
should  be,  that  violence  was  necessarily  to  be  ap 
prehended  from  either.  Their  friendly  understand 
ing  with  the  American  officers  at  Pittsburg  had  not 
been  disturbed,  and  it  was  hardly  to  be  looked  for 
that  the  heathen  clans — mostly  tribesmen  of  their 
own — would  deal  more  cruelly  with  them,  at  worst, 
than  they  had  already  done, — the  risk  of  which,  to 
that  extent,  they  were  willing,  for  the  end  in  view, 
to  hazard.  Proper  caution,  nevertheless,  was  to 


THE  MORAVIAN.  161 

be  observed,  and  they  decided,  upon  reaching  the 
Muskingum,  not  to  visit  the  towns,  but  to  encamp 
in  the  woods.  They  were  making  their  arrange 
ments  accordingly,  when  two  or  three  of  their  fel- 
low-communionists,  happening  in  upon  them  from 
Pittsburg,  gave  such  assurances  of  non-interference 
from  that  quarter,  that,  for  the  greater  convenience 
of  their  business,  they  concluded  to  change  their 
plans  and  occupy  the  villages. 

For  several  weeks,  toiling  night  and  day,  they 
pursued  their  labors,  plucking  the  ears  from  the 
stalks,  stripping  off  the  husks,  and  carrying  great 
loads  of  the  corn  away  to  carefully-prepared  hiding- 
places  in  the  woods ;  whence,  from  time  to  time, 
and  with  ease  and  dispatch,  future  supplies  might 
be  obtained,  as  the  wants  of  the  Congregation  de 
manded.  One  evening,  when  their  task  was  nearly 
completed,  four  Sandusky  warriors  appeared  among 
them  on  their  way  back  from  an  expedition  down 
among  the  white  settlements  on  the  Ohio.  They 
had  captured  a  woman  and  a  child  in  the  valley, 
while  wandering,  so  they  said,  both  of  whom  they 
had  killed  and  impaled  on  the  river-shore.  The 
victims,  it  was  added,  would  be  discovered, — with 
out  doubt  were  already  discovered, — pursuit  would 
certainly  follow,  and  unless  the  Brethren,  who,  if 
not  set  down  as  its  actual  perpetrators,  would  be 
charged  with  having  connived  at  the  deed,  made 
instant  retreat  towards  the  lake,  they  would,  in  all 
likelihood,  be  overtaken  and  murdered.  Relying- 


1 62  BLACK-ROBES. 

upon  their  well-known  reputation  as  a  society  re 
ligiously  averse  to  bloodshed,  and  satisfied,  against 
whatever  treacherous  suggestion,  with  the  pledges 
of  friendship  so  recently  renewed  at  Pittsburg,  they 
declined,  after  consultation,  to  act  upon  the  advice 
of  the  warriors. 

By  this  time,  however,  they  had  laid  up  as  large 
a  stock  of  provision  as  was  desired,  and  notice  was 
accordingly  served  throughout  the  villages  for  all 
to  put  themselves  in  readiness  for  returning  to 
Sandusky.  On  the  day  previous  to  the  one  fixed 
for  their  departure,  Jacob,  one  of  the  converts, 
stood  on  the  river-bank,  a  short  distance  from 
Gnadenhiitten,  and,  while  engaged  in  tying  a  corn- 
sack,  saw  a  body  of  from  one  to  two  hundred  white 
men  approaching  the  town.  He  was  on  the  point 
of  saluting  the  company,  when  to  his  consterna 
tion  a  shot  was  fired  from  its  ranks  at  one  of  the 
Christian  Indians,  who,  at  the  moment,  was  cross 
ing  the  river  in  a  canoe.  The  shot  seemed  to  tell 
with  mortal  effect,  the  man  dropping  from  his  seat 
at  the  Discharge,  into  the  bottom  of  his  vessel. 
Jacob  fled  affrighted,  but,  instead  of  escaping  to  one 
or  other  of  the  villages  and  giving  the  alarm,  he  ran 
to  the  woods,  where  he  lay  hidden  for  twenty-four 
hours.  There  was  no  other  witness  of  the  occur 
rence,  the  rest  of  the  Brethren  being  scattered, 
beyond  view,  here  and  there  in  the  cornfields. 

The  company  of  border-men  continued  their 
march,  without  any  further  act  of  hostility,  until 


THE  MORAVIAN.  163 

they  had  approached  the  fields  where  the  Indians 
were  at  work.  On  meeting  with  them  they  mani 
fested  great  cordiality;  expressing  themselves  as 
entertaining  an  ardent  sympathy  for  the  Brother 
hood  ;  referring  to  their  handsome  chapel  in  rather 
extravagant  terms  of  admiration,  and  discoursing, 
with  a  zeal  that  was  very  captivating,  as  indica 
tive  of  a  highly-sanctified  temper  of  heart,  upon 
religious  topics.  They  then  declared  the  object 
of  their  visit.  They  were  there  "as  friends  and 
brothers,  who  had  purposely  come  out  to  relieve 
them  from  the  distresses  brought  on  by  the  enemy 
on  account  of  their  being  friends  to  the  Ameri 
can  people,"  and  formally  proposed  to  conduct 
them  to  Pittsburg,  where  their  wants  would  all  be 
satisfied.  The  Christians,  unsuspicious  of  evil, 
reciprocated  their  greetings  with  unaffected  warmth, 
and  expressed  a  cheerful  willingness  to  follow  them 
as  proposed.  "God  has  ordained  it,"  they  ex 
claimed,  in  their  gratitude,  "  that  relief  should 
reach  us,  and  that  we  should  not  perish  in  the 
barrens  of  Sandusky." 

Having  all  gathered  in  at  Gnadenhiitten,  worJ 
was  sent  to  Salem  of  the  arrival  of  the  whites — 
quite  a  detachment  of  the  latter  accompanying  the 
messengers  appointed  to  convey  the  intelligence — ' 
and  of  their  charitable  intentions,  inviting  the 
Brethren  there  to  come  over  and  join  in  the  pro 
posed  movement.  They  gladly  acquiesced  in  the 
arrangement.  The  simple  preparations  .1  cessary 


!64  BLACK-ROBES. 

— or  possible — were  soon  made.  Out  of  con 
sideration  for  their  greater  comfort  in  journeying, 
urged  tenderly,  but  so  tenaciously  as  to  have  jus 
tified  a  suspicion  of  some  unfair  intention,  if  the 
honest  Moravians  had  been  given  to  doubting,  the 
whites  proposed,  and  were  permitted,  to  take  in 
charge  all  their  guns,  axes,  and  knives,  with  the 
promise  that  they  should  be  restored  upon  their 
arrival  at  Pittsburg. 

The  party  reached  Gnadenhiitten.  Assembled 
all  in  the  village,  a  change,  marvelous  as  sudden, 
took  place  in  the  conduct  of  the  border-men.  No 
longer  needed  now  in  the  further  prosecution  of 
their  plans,  disguise  was  cast  aside,  and  the  de 
ceivers  presented  themselves  in  their  genuine  char 
acter.  They  charged  upon  the  Moravians,  inso 
lently  and  unblushingly,  although  they  knew  the 
allegation  to  be  false,  that  they  were  not  what  they 
claimed  to  be ;  that  their  professions  were  hypo 
critical,  their  practices  dishonest;  that  their  horses 
had  been  stolen  from  the  white  settlers,  as  was  in 
dicated  by  the  letters — for  what  knowledge  had 
they  of  letters  ? — with  which  they  were  branded ; 
that  their  axes,  stamped  with  white  men's  names, 
had  been  procured  in  the  same  way,  as  were  also 
'their  wooden  bowls,  their  spoons,  their  teakettles, 
pots,  cups,  and  other  utensils  of  the  sort ;  in  short, 
that  they  were  warriors  and  enemies,  and  that  they 
must  make  up  their  minds  to  meet  the  treatment 
due  them  as  such. 


THE  MORAVIAN.  l6| 

In  vain  the  unhappy  creatures  whom  they  had 
entrapped  protested  their  innocence.  They  could 
account  for  the  lawful  arid  honest  acquisition  of 
every  article  of  property  in  their  possession.  The 
irons  for  the  brands  were  made  by  the  smiths 
on  their  own  order,  to  mark  their  own  horses 
for  identification  among  themselves.  With  their 
habits  refined  under  training  of  the  missiona 
ries,  and  enabled  thereto  out  of  the  abundance 
rewarding  their  industry,  they  were  qualified  to 
live,  and  did  live,  like  Christian  people,  and  had 
long  owned,  and  had  in  use,  the  cooking  and  other 
domestic  implements  peculiar  to  civilized  life.  That 
they  were  not  heathen  Indians,  or  of  those  that  were 
at  strife  with  the  Americans,  might  be  seen  from 
the  fact  that  they  did  hot  appear  in  the  savage  cos 
tume  ;  nor  were  their  faces  painted,  nor  did  they 
wear  the  feathers,  nor  the  scalp-locks,  which  dis 
tinguished  the  warriors.  Some  few  of  the  border- 
men  were  inclined  to  deal  leniently  with  them,  and 
indeed  refused  to  participate  in  the  after-proceed 
ings,  but  the  majority  were  not  to  be  moved.  Their 
fate  was  sealed. 

Two  adjoining  buildings  were  selected  as  places 
of  confinement,  into  one  of  which  the  men  were 
thrust,  and  the  women  and  children  into  the  other. 
A  council  of  the  whites  was  hastily  held,  after 
which  the  formal  announcement  was  made  to  the 
prisoners  that  they  must  die.  With  folded  hands, 
imploring  piteously,  they  prayed  for  life.  The  ears 


1 66  BLACK-ROBES. 

of  their  captors  were  deaf  to  entreaty,  and  if 
they  yielded  so  far,  at  length,  as  to  postpone  the 
execution  of  their  resolve  until  next  day,  it  is  more 
than  likely  that  the  respite  was  granted,  not  from 
motives  of  compassion,  but  that,  like  tigers,  they 
might  enjoy  the  tortures  of  their  prey,  and  from 
their  agonies  derive  a  keener  relish  for  to-morrow's 
feast  of  blood.  Convinced  at  length  that  the  con 
sciences  with  which  they  had  to  do  were  proof 
against  appeal,  they  ceased  the  effort.  "  We  can 
call  God  to  witness,"  said  they,  "  that  we  are  per 
fectly  innocent;  yet  we  are  prepared  and  willing 
to  suffer  death." 

No  symptom  of  weakness  betrayed  itself  there 
after.  They  had  made  their  plea,  earnestly  but 
not  cravenly,  as  true  men  may.  It  had  failed. 
They  accepted  the  failure,  and  with  unfaltering 
composure  awaited  what  was  to  come.  Hero 
ism  had  never  a  nobler  illustration  than  was  ex 
emplified  in  their  cases  at  that  most  trying  crisis. 
All  through  the  night  devotional  services  were 
kept  up ;  words  of  exhortation  were  interchanged, 
mutual  confessions  made,  and  prayers  and  praises 
offered  at  the  throne  of  Grace.  "  I  have  been  an 
untoward  child,"  said  Brother  Abraham,  "and 
have  grieved  the  Lord  by  my  disobedience,  not 
walking  as  I  ought  to  have  done,  yet  will  I 
cleave  to  my  Saviour  with  my  last  breath.  I 
know  assuredly  that  He  will  forgive  me  all  my 
sins  and  not  cast  me  out."  While  still  religiously 


THE  MORAVIAN.  167 

engaged,  singing  together  a  hymn  at  the  moment, 
the  impatient  ruffians  who  had  voluntarily  assumed 
the  task,  entered  the  rooms,  and,  harshly  interrupt 
ing  the  proceedings,  asked  the  prisoners  if  they 
were  ready.  They  had  committed  their  immortal 
souls  to  God,  they  said,  and  were  ready.  One  of 
the  border-men  took  hold  of  a  cooper's  mallet  that 
lay  on  the  floor,  observing,  as  he  did  so,  "How  ex 
actly  this  will  answer  for  the  purpose!"  and  with  a 
heavily-wielded  blow  at  the  head  of  Brother  Abra 
ham  brought  him  to  the  floor.  Plying  the  weapon 
right  and  left,  he  did  not  pause  until  fourteen  of  the 
Christians  were  prostrate,  struggling  in  the  agonies 
of  death.  He  then  delivered  the  mallet  to  one  of 
his  fellows,  remarking,  "  My  arm  fails  me !  Go 
you  on  in  the  same  way  !"  And  so,  while  a  victim 
remained,  the  work  of  butchery  continued. 

Sixty-two  men  and  women  and  thirty-four 
children  were  stricken  down,  scalped,  and  left 
crushed  and  bleeding  on  the  floors  of  these 
slaughter-pens.  Two  only  escaped  ;  one,  who  by 
adroit  management  had  extricated  himself  from 
the  cords  with  which  he  had  been  bound,  crawled 
through  a  window  and  secreted  himself  in  the 
cellar  of  the  house  in  which  the  Sisters  were  con 
fined,  their  blood  streaming  down  upon  him 
through  the  seams  in  the  floor  as  he  crouched 
there  ;  and  another,  who,  felled,  scalped,  and  left  for 
dead  like  the  rest,  had  nevertheless  revived  after 
wards  ;  betraying  the  fact,  however,  by  no  sign,  but 


1 68  BLACK-ROBES. 

lying  where  he  had  fallen  among  the  slain,  with 
out  motion  or  groan,  although  suffering  indescrib 
able  torture.  In  this  predicament  he  lingered  while 
the  light  lasted,  and  as  long  as  there  was  danger 
of  discovery.  Under  cover  of  the  darkness  both 
managed  to  retreat  undetected  from  the  building 
and  gain  the  woods,  whence,  as  the  night  deepened, 
they  resumed  their  flight,  and  after  a  painful  jour 
ney  succeeded,  at  length,  in  reaching  Sandusky  in 
safety.  But  ere  yet  beyond  view  of  the  village,  as 
they  were  able  to  relate  to  the  horrified  Congrega 
tion  on  the  lake-shore,  they  had  seen  the  torches 
applied  to  the  slaughter-pens  ;  they  had  seen  the 
flames  leap  up  and  reach  and  spread,  until  the 
buildings  were  all  enveloped  in  the  blaze ;  and,  in 
the  glare  of  the  fire,  they  had  witnessed  the  dark 
forms  of  the  border-men  group  and  mingle,  and  in 
grim  pantomime  make  display  of  their  exultation 
at  sight  of  this  closing  act  of  the  hideous  tragedy. 
Among  the  victims  of  the  massacre  was  Glikkikan, 
the  Delaware  captain,  who  from  the  date  of  his  con 
version  had  continued,  through  all  its  vicissitudes 
of  fortune,  with  the  Congregation,  loyal  to  the  Faith, 
and  true  in  his  attachment  to  the  missionaries. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  the  day  following  the 
fatal  one  at  Gnadenhutten,  the  band  of  assassins 
mounted  their  horses  and  started  for  Schonbrunn, 
to  enact  similar  violence  against  the  Christians 
who  had  taken  shelter  in  that  settlement.  For 
tunately,  two  Brethren  from  that  locality,  walking 


THE  MORA  VIAN. 


169 


towards  Gnadenhiitten,  encountered  accidentally 
the  dead  body  of  one  of  their  number,  a  young 
convert  called  Joseph  Shabosh,  who  had  been  se 
cretly  murdered,  like  the  boatman,  while  out  alone, 
and  about  a  mile  apart  from  the  rest  of  his  people. 
Noticing  the  tracks  of  shod  hoofs  in  the  soil,  they 
suspected  danger,  hastened  back  and  alarmed  their 
neighbors.  When  the  border-men  reached  the 
village  they  found  it  deserted;  and  although  the 
Indians  who  had  fled  were  retired  so  short  a 
distance  up  the  river  that  they  could  see  the 
movements  of  their  pursuers,  they  remained  un 
discovered.  After  robbing  the  houses  and  stables 
of  whatever  properties  of  value  they  could  lay 
hands  upon,  the  plunderers,  without  choosing  to 
resume  pursuit,  turned  about  and  took  up  their 
route  for  home.  Arrived  at  Pittsburg,  the  effects 
which  they  had  stolen  were  offered  for  sale  at 
public  auction ;  on  which  occasion  the  scalps 
taken  were  brought  out  and  proudly  exposed,  as 
trophies  of  heroic  achievement,  before  the  gaze  of 
admiring  bidders  and  beholders. 

To  COLONEL  DAVID  WILLIAMSON  belongs  the 
distinction  of  having  led,  as  ruffian-in-chief,  in  this 
memorable  adventure.  If  he  is  to  be  accredited  with 
the  account  of  the  expedition,  as  published  at  the 
time  in  the  Pennsylvania  Gazette,  wherein  it  is  said, 
"  We  arrived  at  the  town  (Gnadenhiitten)  in  the 
night,  undiscovered ;  attacked  the  Indians  in  their 
cabins,  and  so  completely  surprised  them  that  we 


1 70  BLA  CK-R  OSES. 

killed  and  scalped  upwards  of  ninety,  but  a  few 
making  their  escape, — and  returned  to  the  Ohio 
without  the  loss  of  a  man,"  then  was  he  contemp 
tible  as  a  mendacious  braggart.  "  Did  you  not 
hail  and  welcome  the  believing  Indians,"  was  the 
more  truthful  charge  uttered  against  him  and  his 
gang  by  the  savages,  alluding  to  this  occasion, 
shortly  after,  "as  friends?  You  assured  them  of 
your  friendship.  You  told  them  that  they  need 
not  fear  any  harm  from  you.  Did  they  run  from 
you  when  they  saw  you  coming  ?  Did  they  fire  a 
single  shot  at  you  ?  No.  We  warriors  warned 
them  to  beware  of  you  arid  your  pretended  friend 
ship;  but  they  would  not  believe,  and  for  this  they 
paid  with  their  lives."  If  when,  two  months  after 
wards,  a  second  expedition  was  undertaken  to  finish 
the  work  at  Sandusky  so  prosperously  begun  on 
the  Muskingum,  and  when  in  turn  the  border-men 
were  surprised,  the  projector  of  the  movement  was 
the  first  man  to  take  advantage  of  chance,  desert  his 
comrades  and  seek  safety  in  flight;  and  if  in  that 
same  adventure  the  more  honorable  but  less  for 
tunate  Colonel  Crawford,  who  would  not  abandon 
his  followers,  was  captured,  most  cruelly  tortured, 
and  murdered,  in  retaliation  for  the  crime  in  which 
he  had  not  participated,  then  was  the  denunciation 
of  the  civilized  world  well  bestowed,  and  the  judg 
ment  of  the  savages  well  awarded,  when  they 
pronounced  the  leader  in  both  enterprises  a  black 
hearted  assassin,  a  betrayer,  and  a  coward. 


THE  MORA  VIA  N.  \ ;  i 


VII. 

THE  DISPERSION  OF  THE  CONGREGATION;    ITS  RESTO 
RATION,  AND  ITS  RETURN  TO  THE  MUSKINGUM. 

THE  condition  of  the  Brethren  on  the  San- 
dusky  was  melancholy  in  the  extreme. 
Their  place  of  habitation  amid  the  soggy  flats  of 
that  half-deluged  region  was  inhospitable,  com 
fortless,  and  of  such  dismal  associations  that  they 
would  not  give  it  name,  but  left  it  as  a  blot  or  a 
blank  to  fill  its  place  in  the  record  of  their  wander 
ings.  The  lancjs  around  them  were  rich  enough 
in  the  production  of  rank  and  unwholesome  vege 
tation,  such  as  found  indigenous  growth  in  the 
contaminate  soil;  but  no  effort  of  industry  could 
overcome  their  stubborn  resistance  to  every  at 
tempt  at  better  culture.  The  winter  climate  was 
cruel  beyond  endurance.  In  months  of  milder 
temperature  the  air  was  charged  with  pestilence. 
Men  pined  miserably  from  disease  and  want. 
Fevers  racked  their  bodies.  The  proper  prey  of 
vultures — cattle  fallen  dead  by  the  wayside,  of 
famine — was  a  last  resort  for  sustenance,  upon 
which  they  fed  hungrily.  Persecutions  assailed 
them  from  every  quarter.  They  found  themselves 
betrayed  by  friends  in  whom  they  had  trusted  ;  and 
the  hands  which  they  had  clasped  in  pledge  of  that 


172  BLACK-ROBES. 

confidence,  lifted  treacherously  against  them,  were 
red  with  the  blood  of  their  martyred  kindred. 
They  were  despised  and  rejected  of  the  tribes  of 
their  own  race ;  and  how  could  they  hope,  and  for 
what  could  they  hope,  from  the  people  that  recog 
nized  Pipe  as  a  partisan,  and  Girty  and  McKee 
and  Elliott  as  allies  ?  Their  missionaries,  towards 
whom,  in  the  cares  of  life,  they  had  been  used  to  look 
for  guidance  and  support,  had  been  forced  away 
and  kept  in  banishment  God  seemed  to  have  for 
gotten  to  be  merciful ;  to  have  disowned  their  de 
votion,  mocked  at  their  calamities,  and  given  them 
over  utterly  to  helpless,  hopeless  abandonment. 

Some  of  the  better  qualified  by  grace  and  faith 
among  the  converts,  who  had  been  accustomed  to 
serve  as  assistants  to  the  missionaries,  maintained 
the  forms  of  worship  in  the  community,  the  exer 
cises  peculiar  to  which  were  for  some  time  marked 
by  affecting  displays  of  interest;  but  the  artful  con 
spirators-  who  had  successfully  engineered  the  re 
moval  of  the  shepherds  were  not  to  be  easily  foiled 
in  their  experiments  upon  the  flock.  They  pois 
oned  the  ears  of  the  people  with  baneful  accusa 
tions  against  their  white  leaders.  The  Muskingum 
massacre,  they  alleged,  was  planned  with  their 
knowledge;  else  why,  instead  of  waiting  with  their 
followers  to  share  the  disaster  that  was  to  happen, 
had  they  allowed  themselves  to  be  carried  off  to  a 
place  of  safety  beyond  the  water?  Murmurs  of 
discontent  at  length  began  to  prevail.  Here  and 


THE  MORA  VIAN. 


173 


there  a  discipje  of  weak  faith  gave  way.  Soon 
backsliders  made  open  confession  of  relapse,  and 
boldly  advocated  apostasy  to  the  rest.  To  com 
plete  the  array  of  adversities  hemming  the  unfor 
tunates  about,  and  closing  in  upon  them  irresistibly, 
the  arm  of  civil  authority  was  interposed.  The 
half-king  of  the  Hurons,  "  so  incessantly  tormented 
by  his  evil  conscience  that  he  could  not  rest  as 
long  as  any  Christian  Indians  were  in  his  neigh 
borhood  to  remind  him  of  his  treacherous  and 
cruel  behavior,"  commanded  them  peremptorily  to 
disband  and  leave  the  country.  The  order  was  not 
to  be  disputed.  Heavy  at  heart  for  the  separations 
that  were  to  take  place,  but  without  a  sigh  of  re 
gret  at  parting  from  the  huts  of  logs  and  bark  in 
which  a  wretched  tarrying  of  six  months  had  been 
endured,  and  that  were  never  sanctified  by  a  single 
endearing  home  association,  on  an  April  day  (1782) 
they  gathered  up  the  ragged  remains  of  their  pos 
sessions,  took  their  various  courses  and  wandered 
off,  some  to  the  country  of  the  Shawanese,  and 
some  to  the  Miami  River.  And  so  the  community 
was  broken  in. pieces;  and  so  the  nameless  settle 
ment  on  the  Sand u sky  was  abandoned  forever. 

The  missionaries  had  scarcely  retired  from  De 
troit,  after  their  acquittal  in  the  trial  to  which  refer 
ence  has  been  made,  when,  upon  additional  charges 
preferred  by  the  same  parties,  they  were  again 
brought  before  the  commandant.  On  this  occa 
sion,  however,  they  were  not  subjected  to  even  the 

is* 


1 74  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

form  of  an  examination.  The  commandant  was 
satisfied  of  their  innocence,  and  assured  them  that 
it  was  only  with  a  view  to  their  welfare  that  he 
had  ordered  their  appearance  at  Detroit,  being 
convinced,  from  reliable  information,  that  if  they 
remained  at  Sandusky  it  would  be  at  the  imminent 
hazard  of  their  lives.  He  gave  them  permission  to 
tarry  under  his  protection  at  Detroit,  or  return  to 
Bethlehem,  as  they  chose.  Duty  and  affection  for 
bade  their  assent  to  either  arrangement.  It  would 
be  inhuman,  it  would  be  unchristian,  in  the  hour 
of  trial  to  forsake  their  scattered  flock  entirely. 
Their  first  wish  was  to  establish  a  settlement  in 
some  new  and  safe  locality,  where  they  could  gather 
around  them  their  dispersed  people,  contribute  to 
their  comfort,  and  preserve  them  in  the  faith  of 
the  gospel.  Learning  their  project,  De  Peyster 
approved  of  it,  and,  exerting  his  influence  with  the 
Chippewas,  secured  a  grant  from  that  tribe  of  a 
portion  of  their  territory  on  the  Huron  River, 
thirty  miles  above  Detroit,  for  their  use.  The  mis 
sionaries  took  possession  of  the  little  domain, 
measured  off  fields,  laid  out  gard  ns,  built  cabins 
of  bark,  and  sent  messages  to  the  wandered  exiles 
of  the  Congregation,  inviting  them  to  repair  to  the 
NEW-GNADENHUTTEN  reared  for  their  reception. 
Abraham,  the  old  Mohican  captain  and  early  con 
vert,  was  one  of  the  first  to  respond.  Others 
followed,  and  soon  again  others,  singly  and  in 
families,  until  quite  a  community  was  gathered  in, 


THE  MORAVIAN.  175 

V 

and  the  new  village  began  to  wear  an  inhabited 
air  and  assume  something  of  that  homelike  aspect 
which  had  so  endeared  their  former  settlements  to 
the  hearts  of  the  Christians. 

Before  winter  set  in,  the  temporary  bark  huts 
were  torn  away  and  comfortable  log  cabins  put  up 
in  their  stead.  The  ground  was  cleared  of  under 
wood,  in  readiness  for  the  plow  and  spade,  when  the 
coming  of  seed-time  should  call'Tor  their  employ 
ment  Colonel  De  Peyster  generously  furnished 
supplies  of  garden  and  farming  tools,  a  boat,  a  pair 
of  cows,  and  some  horses ;  his  wife,  at  the  same 
time,  offering,  as  her  contribution,  an  assortment 
of  seeds,  roots,  and  plants.  To  meet  the  wants  of 
the  people  through  the  winter,  hunting  and  trap 
ping  were  resorted  to  ;  what  flesh  they  had  to  spare, 
together  with  the  hides  and  furs  of  the  captured 
game,  being  taken  to  Detroit  and  there  exchanged 
for  meal  and  wearing-apparel.  The  women,  and 
men  inexpert  at  the  use  of  the  rifle  or  the  snare, 
remained  at  home,  improving  their  leisure  in  the 
manufacture  of  canoes,  baskets,  bowls,  ladles,  and 
brooms,  or,  further  on  in  the  season,  tapping  the 
maples  in  the  neighboring  groves  and  distilling 
their  juices  into  sugar.  With  these  articles  quite  a 
traffic  was  carried  on  with  the  white  population  in 
and  about  the  British  fort. 

Thus  the  first  winter,  and  so  year  after  year, 
passed  by.  Busy  hands  did  what  was  possible  to 
improve  the  lands,  and  make  more  and  more  com- 


1 76  BLA  CK-R  OSES. 

fortable  the  dwellings  and  neat  and  ornamental  the 
thoroughfares.  The  rough  features  of  the  native 
wil'ds  of  the  vicinity  were  made  smooth ;  meadows 
lay  green  and  smiling  on  the  water-shores  where 
thickets  of  stunted  oak-saplings,  densely  grown, 
had  flourished  ;  and  cattle  browsed  on  open  ranges 
— pastures  teeming  with  verdure — where,  in  the 
copses,  foxes  erewhile  had  made  their  hiding- 
places,  and  the  cleer  had  taken  for  refuge  when 
pursued  by  the  hunter. 

The  religion  of  the  Moravian  meant  work  as  well 
as  worship.  While  demanding  strictly  its  tithes 
of  devotional  offering,  it  exacted  no  less  rigidly  its 
equal  measure  of  muscular'tribute.  A  system  of 
belief  thus  severe  in  its  requirements  was  as  little 
to  the  relish  of  the  savage  as — could  it  be  less  than  ? 
— it  would  have  been  to  the  mass  of  paler-com- 
plexioned  and  more  orthodox  creedists.  It  called 
for  long  years  of  patient  labor  among  the  folk  of 
their  chosen  nation,  to  win  over  to  the  Unity  the 
converts  of  which  its  small  flock  was  composed. 
The  flesh  more  powerfully  than  the  devil  was  up 
in  arms  against  the  attempted  innovation.  Under 
God,  Zeisberger  and  his  colleagues,  with  the  Dela- 
wares  to  deal  with,  were  more  than  a  match  for 
their  antagonists,  and  out  of  that  people  were  able 
to  attract  followers,  and  hold  them  fast  and  faith 
ful,  through  whatever  vicissitude  of  trial,  to  the  new 
profession.  But  the  Lenni-Lenapes  were  a  race 
among  whom  virtue  was  not  altogether  effete,  nor 


THE  MORAVIAN.  177 

life  in  its  diviner  instincts  without  an  aspiration. 
The  Chippewas,  on  the  other  hand,  were  a  misera 
bly  degraded  tribe, — sunk  so  low  as  over  the  purely 
animal  scarcely  to  have  maintained  a  rational  level 
in  the  scale  of  being.  Indolent  knaves  were  they, 
who  derived  their  chief  subsistence  from  hunting 
and  fishing,  or,  when  these  resources  failed,  who 
found  a  satisfactory  substitute  in  frogs,  dogs, 
muskrats,  and  dead  horses.  Wedded  to  their 
groveling  ways,  they  saw  nothing  to  captivate 
them  in  the  toilsome  pursuits  and  compulsory 
observances  of  the  Christians. 

The  missionaries  labored  long  to  educate  these 
savages  to  a  loftier  conception  of  life  and  its  duties, 
but  their  efforts  were  futile.  Between  societies 
whose  materials  were  of  such  incongruous  compo 
sition,  there  could  exist  no  common  element  of 
attraction.  They  might  exercise  a  mutual  forbear 
ance  for  awhile ;  but  that  virtue  is  of  a  precarious 
temper,  and,  if  it  does  not  ripen  ere  long  into  a  feel 
ing  of  more  generous  cast,  is  apt  to  degenerate  into 
a  sentiment  of  aversion.  Four  years  of  residence 
were  spent  at  the  settlement  on  the  Huron.  In  the 
beginning  the  heathen  had  received  the  Congrega 
tion  of  exiles  kindly.  The  novelty  of  the  Chris 
tian  usages  having  worn  off,  indifference  followed, 
then  distrust,  then  dissatisfaction.  Complaints 
began  to  be  made.  Their  hospitality  was  being 
unreasonably  taxed.  They  wanted  their  own  lands 
for  their  d\vn  purposes.  The  country  thereabouts 


1 78  BLACK-ROBES. 

constituted  their  choicest  hunting-grounds.  The 
Moravians  were  clearing  out  their  woods,  killing 
their  game,  and  soon,  unless  rid  of  their  guests, 
they  would  be  left  destitute.  Moreover,  the  causes 
no  longer  existed  which  had  induced  the  offer  of 
accommodation  to  the  Society.  The  war  had 
ended;  peace  was  restored,  and  they  were  at 
liberty  to  go  where  they  would,  with  none  to 
molest  them  or  make  them  afraid. 

Although  their  occupation  of  New-Gnadenhut- 
ten  had  been  one  of  uninterrupted  repose;  although 
Providence,  rewarding  their  toils,  had  given  them 
to  enjoy  plentifully  of  the  means  promotive  of  ease 
and  comfort,  yet  the  attachments  of  the  Brethren 
to  the  place  were  not  so  many,  nor  so  strong,  but 
that  they  could  be  broken  without  insupportable 
regret.  There  were  no  endearing  associations 
connected  with  the  spot.  The  marked  events  of 
their  experience — their  struggles,  their  successes, 
their  joys,  and  their  griefs — all  dated  back  in  the 
past,  and  were  linked  with  other  scenes  and  other 
times.  Lichtenau  and  Salem,  the  Beautiful  Spring 
and  the  Tents  of  Grace,  were  the  Zion  to  which  their 
thoughts  reverted.  There  had  they  witnessed  their 
triumphs  and  been  used  to  join  their  thousand 
voices  in  glad  psalms  of  rejoicing.  There  had  they 
suffered  together  when  overtaken  by  calamity,  and 
there  the  bones  of  their  dead  lay  buried. 

The  missionaries  had  been  defeated  in  the  grand 
project  which  they  had  undertaken.  On  the  eve 


THE  MORAVIAN. 


of  success,  when  their  chapels  were  filled  with 
attentive  hearers;  when  chieftains,  warriors,  and 
counselors  thronged  with  the  multitude  to  listen  to 
the  messages  of  inspiration  ;  and  when  the  belief, 
which  they  had  labored  for  forty  years  to  establish 
as  the  national  faith  of  the  Delawares,  seemed 
about  to  displace  the  ancient  superstition,  they 
found  their  plans  thwarted,  their  work  wrecked, 
their  brotherhood  banished,  broken  and  scattered, 
and  the  expectations  upon  which  they  had  reck 
oned  so  fondly  blighted  forever.  In  the  choice 
of  this  their  latest  tarrying-place  they  had  scarcely 
looked  for  more  than  to  gather  in,  and  maintain  in 
the  Unity,  such  scattered  remnants  as  they  might 
of  their  dispersed  people.  This  done,  they  could 
entertain  no  dearer  desire  than,  when  the  door  of 
deliverance  opened,  to  take  up  again  their  pilgrim 
age,  retrace  the  ways  of  their  wandering,  and,  as  the 
day  of  their  prosperity  declined,  to  spend  serenely 
its  closing  hours  amid  the  scenes  where  they  had 
enjoyed  the  full  lustre  of  its  noon,  on  the  old 
familiar  shores  of  the  Muskingum. 

When,  therefore,  the  Chippewas  intimated  a  de 
sire  for  their  removal,  the  Congregation,  ministers 
and  members,  assented  to  the  suggestion  without 
a  complaint.  On  the  2Oth  of  April,  1786,  they  as 
sembled  for  the  last  time  in  their  chapel  ;  presented 
their  oblation  of  prayer  and  praise,  thanking  the 
Lord  for  his  mercies  and  commending  themselves 
to  his  protection;  then,  embarking  in  their  canoes, 


1 80  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

twenty-two  in  number,  they  bade  adieu  to  the 
friends  collected  to  witness  their  departure,  shoved 
the  vessels  from  the  shore,  and  were  gone. 

It  does  not  fall  within  the  design  of  this  sketch 
to  follow  further  in  detail  the  progress  of  the  wan 
derers  ;  to  describe  the  alarms  that  caused  a  delay  of 
a  year  at  Pilgerruh, — the  Pilgrims'  Rest ;  to  speak 
of  the  longer  sojourn  at  Pettquotting,  where  Gillele- 
mend,  or  Killbuck,  embraced  the  gospel  and  was 
baptized;  nor  of  their  return  to  Michigan,  and  of 
their  temporary  settlement  at  Fairfield.  The  oppor 
tunity  tocarry  out  theircherished  intention  occurred 
at  length,  and  on  the  4th  of  October,  1798,  seven 
teen  years  after  their  expulsion,  the  Congregation 
of  exiles  were  back  again  on  the  banks  of  the  Elk- 
Eye.  They  found  their  lands  overgrown  with  tall, 
coarse  grass,  and  infested  with  serpents.  Briers 
and  bushes,  the  harbor  of  wild  beasts,  thicketed 
the  site  of  Gnadenhiitten ;  all  traces  of  which  were 
lost  except  the  ruins  of  a  house  or  two,  and,  there 
where  the  slaughter-pens  had  stood,  a  heap  of 
ashes,  with  here  and  there  a  bone  not  altogether 
consumed,  indicating  with  melancholy  certainty 
the  scene  of  that  awful  visitation,  never  to  be 
forgotten,  of  violence  and  fire,  of  treachery  and 
assassination. 

With  the  retirement  of  the  Brethren  from  New- 
Gnadenhutten  the  mission  in  the  wilderness  may 
be  said  to  have  terminated.  The  new  settlement 
of  Goshen,  erected  eight  miles  from  the  spot  where 


THE  MORA  VIAN.  1 8 1 

Gnadenhutten  had  stood,  on  the  Muskingum,  was 
planted  at  a  time  when  the  region  round  about  was 
rapidly  filling  up  with  white  settlers.  Axes  were 
laid  at  the  roots  of  the  trees ;  clearings  were  made ; 
the  scared  game  was  deserting  the  woods ;  squat 
ters,  tomahawk  in  hand  to  notch  the  corner  hicko 
ries,  were  marking  off  their  claims ;  log  cabins 
were  springing  up,  and  the  valley  of  the  Mus 
kingum  was  within  the  line  of  the  border.  The  re 
sistance  of  the  savage  to  the  encroachments  of  the 
pioneer  only  lacked  the  spasmodic  attempt  made 
shortly  after  by  Tecumseh,  to  be  abandoned  in 
despair.  Their  disintegration  and  dispersion  soon 
followed.  With  the  tide  of  emigration  flocked  in 
other  interpreters  of  inspiration, — stout  defenders 
of  the  Faith,  but  whose  zeal  in  the  service  never 
led  them  to  tempt  the  perils  and  privations  of  a 
life  beyond  the  advance  posts  of  civilization.  A 
new  theatre  for  denominational  .rivalry — a  supple 
mentary  stage  for  church  extension — was  found. 
The  old  field  of  Christian  occupation,  as  among 
the  Gentiles,  was  lost.  The  work  of  the  Moravian 
was  ended. 


16 


THE    METHODIST. 


THE  METHODIST. 


I. 


THE  METHODIST  PREACHER  OF  THE  BORDER NASCI- 

TUR,  NON  FIT. 

AS  with  the  Jesuit  began,  so  with  the  Moravian 
ended  the  missionary  enterprises  of  the  wil 
derness.  While  the  Indian  tribes  peopled  the  land, 
and,  as  national  communities,  claimed  and  held  the 
exclusive  ownership  of  the  soil ;  while  a  trespass 
upon  their  domain,  or  an  offense  against  their  cus 
toms,  involved  the  risk  of  calamitous  consequences; 
and  while  to  be  among  them  was  to  be  shut  out, 
utterly,  from  all  fellowship  with  civilized  society, 
the  follower  of  Loyola  and  the  disciple  of  Huss 
were  permitted  to  enjoy  undisputed  possession  of 
the  field.  "  Evangelical"  competitors  stood  aloof. 
It  was  their  business  to  keep  pace  with  the  prog 
ress  of  light ;  not  to  invade  the  kingdom  of  dark 
ness.  Their  boldest  advances  never  reached  be 
yond  the  clearings.  Did  Brainerd  "  undertake  the 
arduous  work  of  a  missionary  to  wild  barbarians"  ? 
The  work  was  a  few  months'  toil  at  the  Forks  of 
the  Delaware,  and  the  wild  barbarians  were  Irish- 
16*  (  185  ) 


1 86  BLACK-ROBES. 

men  as  well  as  aborigines.  John  Stewart,  the  mu 
latto  Methodist  exhorter,  in  1816,  "located"  tem 
porarily  among  a  band  of  Hurons  at  Sandusky,  but 
it  was  thirteen  years  after  Ohio  had  been  admitted 
as  a  State  into  the  Union.  Isaac  McCoy,  a  very 
worthy  Baptist  divine,  established  the  Carey  Mis 
sion  among  the  Pottawottamies  on  the  St.  Joseph's 
River,  in  Michigan,  but  it  was  in  1822,  when  the 
Territory  had  already  been  represented  for  three 
years  in  Congress.  Indeed,  even  though  a  self- 
denying  spirit  equal  to  the  undertaking  had  not 
been  wanting,  more  adventurous  enterprise  could 
scarcely  have  been  expected,  when  the  esteem  is 
considered  in  which  the  savages  were  held  by  the 
sects  of  the  day.  They  were  imps  of  hell's  beget 
ting,  whom  it  was  religious  duty  to  exterminate, — 
the  predestined  victims  of  perdition,  whom  it  was 
contempt  of  God's  decrees  to  try  to  bring  under 
sanctifying  influence,  —  Hittites  an  1  Girgashites 
possessing  the  land,  whom  it  was  the  bounden 
duty  of  the  Lord's  elect,  rather,  to  smite  and 
utterly  destroy,  to  make  no  covenant  with,  and  in 
whose  favor  to  show  no  mercy :  all  consistently 
with  the  gospel  according  to  Moses.  Entertaining 
such  views  of  the  present  status  and  future  pros 
pects  of  the  race,  to  have  attempted  their  refor 
mation  would  have  been  more  than  a  work  of 
supererogation :  it  would  have  been  to  dispute  the 
designs  of  Providence,  to  squander  the  time  of  his 
servants,  and  rashly  and  imprudently  to  expose  the 


THE  METHODIST.  187 

safety  of  their  persons.  They  declined  the  ven 
ture.  As  others  of  their  own  people  led,  they  might 
dare  to  folk  w,  but  discreetly,  within  bounds,  and 
never  beyond  where  the  surveyor  and  the  squatter, 
at  least,  had  been  before,  to  prepare  the  way  and 
make  straight  the  paths  for  the  succession. 

The  cession  to  the  British,  by  the  Iroquois,  of  the 
country  south  of  the  Alleghany  and  Ohio  Rivers, 
i.i  1768,  opened  up  the  extensive  regions  of  that 
portion  of  Pennsylvania  drained  by  the  Mononga- 
hela,  Western  Virginia,  and  Kentucky  to  the  occu 
pation  of  the  whites.  Explorers  penetrated  the 
wilderness,  speedily  followed  by  traders,  who  com 
menced  a  lucrative  business  in  furs  and  skins  with 
the  Indians.  These,  in  their  turn,  were  succeeded 
by  adventurers  of  more  reputable  vocation ;  men 
who,  with  their  rifles  on  their  shoulders  and  their 
dogs  at  their  heels,  preferred  to  win  by  skill  and 
daring  the  valuable  spoils  which  had  been  the  ob 
jects  of  barter  to  their  predecessors.  The  favorable 
report  given  upon  their  return,  of  the  countries 
which  they  visited,  aroused  attention.  Listeners 
to  their  narratives,  told  in  social  circles  or  at  do 
mestic  firesides, — especially  the  young  who  had  yet 
their  fortunes  to  carve  out,  and  who  wanted  neither 
the  vigor  nor  the  will  to  do  it, — were  easily  tempted 
to  make  trial  on  their  own  account ;  and  so,  from 
the  old  settlements  of  Eastern  Virginia  and  North 
Carolina,  started  that  tide  of  emigration  which  was 
soon  to  make  populous  all  the  new  border,  from 


1 88  BLACK-ROBES. 

the  valley  of  the  Monongahela  to  the  far  hunting- 
grounds  of  the  Cherokees  on  the  Kentucky.  Per 
manent  settlers  occupied  the  lands.  Surveys  were 
made,  cabins  were  built,  acres  were  cleared,  the 
soil  was  tilled,  farm  was  added  to  farm,  villages 
sprang  up,  and  all  abroad  the  inflowing  popula 
tions  were  spreading,  mooring,  improving,  and 
multiplying.  As  the  process  of  importation  went 
on,  speculators  joined  in  it,  helping  to  swell  the 
moving  current — and  add  to  the  list  of  their  des 
tined  victims.  Extensive  tracts  were  bought,  or 
laid  claim  to,  by  these  professional  sharpers,  which 
were  sold  in  parcels  to  newly-arriving  emigrants, 
who  seldom  paused  to  inquire  into  the  validity  of 
titles,  and  were  made  the  subjects  of  gross  imposi 
tion.  They  frequently  paid  the  price  of  their  pur 
chases  two  or  three  times  over,  to  find  that  even 
then  their  claims  were  utterly  invalid.  The  country 
beyond  the  Ohio  attracted  their  attention.  Its  lands 
were  not  in  the  market,  and  therefore  lay  out  of 
the  reach  of  the  avaricious  operator.  The  shores 
wore  a  fruitful  and  inviting  aspect.  Easily  induced 
to  run  the  risk  of  annoyance  from  the  savages,  the 
settlers,  many  of  them,  resolved  upon  a  change, 
and,  crossing  the  river,  began  to  take  possession  of 
the  new  territory,  establishing  their  settlements  in 
the  regions  watered  by  the  Muskingum,  the  Scioto, 
and  the  Miami. 

But  the  provinces  of  the  lower  coast  were  not  to 
enjoy  a  monopoly  of  the  new  field  of  occupation. 


THE  METHODIST.  189 

Massachusetts,  some  twenty  years  subsequently  to 
the  movement  of  her  more  enterprising  sisters,  put 
in  her  claim.  A  party  of  emigrants  under  the 
auspices  of  the  "  Ohio  Company"  crossed  the 
mountains,  reached  the  Youghiogheny,  built  a 
vessel,  which,  in  honor  of  the  memorable  craft  that 
had  borne  their  fathers  on  a  still  more  ..daring 
voyage,  they  called  the  "  Mayflower,"  and,  pursuing 
the  remainder  of  their  journey  by  water,  tarried  not 
until  they  had  attained  their  point  of  destination, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Muskingum.  The  tract  in 
cluded  in  the  grant  of  the  company  covered  a  large 
portion  of  the  eastern  section  of  what  was  after 
wards  the  State  of  Ohio,  and  was  not  of  the 
choicest  part  of  its  territory;  but  the  "Huckle 
berry  Knobs  "  were  a  vast  improvement  on  the 
sterile  patches  of  New  England,  and  the  new 
comers  were  delighted  with  the  change.  Glowing 
accounts  were  sent  back  of  the  country.  It  was  a 
land  flowing,  literally,  with  milk  and  honey.  Its 
meadows,  without  cultivation,  were  equal  to  the 
support  of  millions  of  cattle,  winter  and  summer. 
Sicily  could  not  afford  finer  wheat-lands.  There 
were  bogs  producing  cranberries  enough  to  supply 
tarts  for  all  New  England ;  while  the  legs  of  the 
horses  roving  the  plains  were  dyed  to  the  knees 
with  the  juice  of  the  wild  strawberry.  Fresh  re 
cruits  poured  rapidly  and  continuously  in.  Mari 
etta  sprang  at  once  into  importance  as  a  town.  The 
neighboring  country  filled  up, — the  axe  laying  bare 


1 90  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

new  openings  for  homesteads  farther  and  farther 
back  into  the  woods.  School-houses  were  built, 
teachers  employed,  and,  in  a  short  time,  all  the 
machinery  by  which  well-regulated  Yankee  com 
munities  at  home  are  governed,  set  swimmingly 
in  motion. 

Thus  were  the  nearer  quarters  of  the  Northwest 
Territory  invaded  at  the  south  and  at  the  east, 
and  thus  were  brought  together  in  the  same  Com 
monwealth  two  various  classes,  which  were  ulti 
mately  to  blend  together,  and  out  of  their  united 
thrift  and  enterprise  to  build  up  one  of  the  most 
prosperous  and  populous  republics  in  the  whole 
of  the  confederate  group. 

As  between  these  classes,  there  were  striking 
points  of  contrast.  The  Down-Easter,  in  his  trans 
plantation,  lost  none  of  his  distinguishing  charac 
teristics.  He  was  his  identical  self  on  the  border 
as  in  the  Bay  State.  His  institutions  he  had  brought 
with  him  as  part  and  parcel  of  the  miscella 
neous  stock  of  "notions"  that  constituted  his 
baggage, — his  Bible  and  his  ballot-box,  his  spell 
ing-  and  his  statute-book  (is  it  superfluous  to  add, 
his  jack-knife  and  his  dialect  ?), — all  that  could  be 
made  available  "  to  secure  civil  rights,  establish 
law  and  order,  introduce  a  pure  religion,  and  pro 
vide  for  universal  education."  True  to  the  habits 
in  which  he  had  been  trained  :  of  thinking, — and 
he  was  shrewd  at  it ;  of  doing, — and  he  never 
wearied  of  it ;  of  appearing, — and,  down  to  his 


THE  METHODIST.  191 

cloth,  its  cut  and  its  brass  buttons,  he  never  varied 
in  it, — he  underwent  no  change ;  dealing  with  his 
neighbor,  serving  God — and  himself — as  he  had 
always  done,  as  his  fathers  before  him  had  done, 
and  as  his  children  after  him  would  continue  to  do. 
Not  so  with  the  Virginian.  Cut  loose  from  his 
anchorage  on  the  Chesapeake,  he  left  all  behind 
him,  as  he  went  on  his  wanderings,  save  a  stout 
heart  throbbing  for  adventure,  and  a  stanch  arm 
nerved  to  achieve  it.  The  old  ways  of  life,  the 
influences  of  home  and  of  society,  except  as  they 
may  have  operated  to  induce  a  general  tendency 
of  character,  were  discarded  and  abandoned.  He 
threw  them  off,  as  unsuited  to  the  uses  and  the 
fashions  of  the  woods.  Accoutred  in  his  hunting- 
shirt  of  linsey-woolsey,  his  buckskin  breeches,  fox- 
skin  cap,  and  easily-fitting  moccasins,  and  with  his 
rifle,  his  pouch,  and  the  knife  at  h  s  belt  as  his  only 
impedimenta,  he  launched  out,  freighted  to  his  full 
desire,  upon  his  voyage.  At  his  journey's  end 
he  could  find  him  the  means  to  satisfy  his  wants 
as  their  cravings  demanded.  Hungry,  the  forest 
abounded  with  every  variety  of  game  from  which 
to  choose  his  fare.  Overtaken  by  nightfall,  and 
anxious  for  repose  after  the  toils  of  a  day,  the 
shadow  of  a  rock,  a  shelter  of  boughs  thrown 
loosely  together,  or  a  bed  of  leaves  with  the  broad 
oak-branches  overhead  for  cover,  lent  ample  accom 
modation  for  his  comfort.  In  unrestricted  freedom 
he  roamed  the  forest,  knowing  no  law  save  the  law 


1 92  BLACK-ROBES. 

of  right  between  man  and  man,  which  he  was 
scrupulous  to  respect  himself,  and  for  which,  in  his 
own  behalf,  he  would  have  contended  to  the  death. 
Uneducated,  and  without  opportunity  of  instruc 
tion  other  than  such  as  his  own  experience  offered, 
the  sciences  of  the  schools  were  sealed  mysteries 
to  him,  but  his  understanding  was  not  wanting  in 
the  "gifts" — well  cultivated — that  suited  much 
better  the  exigencies  of  his  case.  He  had  his 
religion.  If,  in  the  practical  working,  it  partook 
of  the  severe  type  of  the  older  dispensation,  when 
retaliation  was  a  virtue,  and  "  a  tooth  for  a  tooth  " 
an  accepted  maxim  among  the  faithful,  it  was 
because  the  flesh  is  weak,  and  temptation,  with 
treachery  and  cruelty  to  contend  against,  is  strong; 
and  because  man,  until  sanctified  by  the  purer  in 
fluences  of  the  gospel,  is  of  the  earth,  earthy, — frail, 
fallible,  and  inflammable. 

The  example  of  the  adventurer  was  not  lost  upon 
the  squatter,  nor  that  of  the  squatter  upon  the  set 
tlers;  so  that  when,  in  a  short  time,  the  region  was 
filled  with  a  more  numerous  population,  its  con 
stituents  came  in  for  a  share  of  the  inheritance ;  the 
original  leaven  in  the  little  was  still  perceptible  in 
the  lump.  In  selecting  lands  for  improvement,  the 
party  intending  to  "  locate"  would  choose  out  of 
the  unoccupied  woods  a  desirable  spot,  with  his 
tomahawk  hack  off  a  chip  from  the  corner  trees 
of  his  claim,  and  thus,  without  any  of  the  formal 
processes  by  which  properties  customarily  fall  into 


THE  METHODIST.  193 

ownership,  would  take  possession  and  proceed  to 
business.  This  novel  style  of  indenture  answered 
every  purpose,  and  was  respected,  between  neigh 
bor  and  neighbor,  as  inviolably  as  though  executed 
in  parchment  and  sanctioned  by  affixture  of  wax 
and  seal,  after  the  more  legitimate  fashion.  First 
having  gave  first  right, — a  right  which,  if  possibly 
any  may  have  lacked  the  conscience,  certainly 
none  had  the  hardihood  to  dispute.  As  the  people 
multiplied,  and  customs  more  in  accordance  with 
civilized  practice  began  to  prevail,  they  were  sub 
mitted  to  as  unavoidable  necessities  of  the  new 
situation ;  but  in  no  case  were  they  allowed  to  the 
interference  with  ownerships,  whether  in  properties 
or  privileges,  acquired  under  the  former  usages. 
The  compass  and  the  chain  might  mark  out  the 
boundaries  of  new  claims,  but  never  cross  the  lines 
already  defined  by  the  tomahawk.  A  title  with  a 
deed  was  good,  certainly,  but  equally  so  was  one 
without  it, — probably  better,  as  there  was  plausible 
argument  to  offer,  in  time,  when  so  many  were 
defrauded  through  the  double-dealing  of  the  land- 
trader. 

So  with  regard  to  the  civil  regulations  of  the 
day.  The  borderer,  although  content  to  be  a 
nomos  unto  himself,  was  not  averse  to  the  intro 
duction  of  " professional"  law,  and  was  content  to 
abide  by  its  decrees ;  provided,  always,  that  they 
were  in  accordance  with  his  own  individual  notions 
of  justice.  He  would  not  divest  himself  of  the 


1 94  BLA  CK-R  OSES. 

right  to  hang  a  highwayman  or  a  horse-thief  on 
the  nearest  tree,  in  order  that  punishment  (with 
the  intervening  possibility  of  a  flaw  in  the  writ — 
or  the  jail,  to  favor  an  escape)  might  be  brought 
about,  more  formally,  through  the  verdict  of  a  jury 
and  the  sentence  of  a  court.  Neither  would  he 
brook  interference  if,  when  wronged  by  the  savage, 
he  chose,  at  his  own  time  and  in  his  own  way,  to 
recover  full  satisfaction  for  the  injury;  and  Mingo 
and  Delaware  could  well  attest  how  severe  was  the 
wrath  of  the  Long-Knife, — as  by  way  of  distinction 
1  the  Virginian  was  called, — and  how  terrible  his 
revenge,  when  recompense  was  due  for  provoca 
tion. 

With  the  Ohio  Company  it  was  part  of  their 
scheme  of  colonization  to  send  out  with  the  emi 
grants  men  qualified  to  discharge  the  various  min 
istries  of  responsibility  in  the  settlement.  Marietta 
was  to  be  kept  under  guardianship  until  she  be 
came  of  age.  For  the  management  of  her  schools 
teachers  were  provided.  She  had  a  superintendent 
to  regulate  her  public  affairs.  Magistrates  were 
appointed  to  administer  justice  ;  physicians  to  wait 
upon  the  sick ;  while  to  look  after  her  spiritual  in 
terests  the  services  were  engaged  of  the  Rev.  Daniel 
Story,  the  "first  regularly  ordained  Congregational 
minister"  in  the  Northwest  Territory  (1788). 

The  Virginians,  on  the  other  hand,  could  not — 
indeed,  did  not  care  to — look  for  men  to  fill  their 
offices.  As  a  want  was  felt  and  an  opening  for 


THE  METHODIST. 


195 


supply  advertised  itself,  the  candidate  for  the  posi 
tion,  one  of  themselves,  and  not  from  solicitation,  but 
on  his  own  motion  and  at  his  own  venture,  put  in  an 
appearance.  The  country  was  not  exempt  from  dis 
eases.  The  Esculapian  aspirant  saw  that  infirmities 
might  be  put  to  profit;  noticed  symptoms;  made 
himself  acquainted  with  the  remedies  in  vogue 
among  Indians  and  old  women;  gathered  in  supplies 
of  pink-root,  sarsaparilla,  ginseng,  jalap,  and  ipecac  ; 
offered  his  services,  and  medicine  became  a  profes 
sion.  Education  was  not  in  eminent  favor  along 
the  frontier.  Boone,  and  Stewart,  and  Finley,  and 
Hoi  den  were  not  remembered  as  having  been 
patrons  of  learning  ;  and  if  they,  the  illustrious  in 
border  history,  were  content  to  dispense  with  let 
ters,  might  not  their  successors  be  satisfied  ?  But 
there  began  to  be  those  of  more  liberal  views, 
who  were  not  disinclined  to  admit  the  advantages 
of  instruction  :  the  Master  was  found  to  take  ad 
vantage  of  the  concession,  and  schools  were  started, 
backed  by  sufficient  support  to  keep  them  in  living 
condition  for  two  or  three  months,  in  the  winter 
time,  out  of  the  twelve. 

People  who  have  once  enjoyed  the  opportunities 
of  Christian  worship  are  seldom  entirely  weaned 
from  their  attachment  to  its  observances.  The 
dwellers  on  the  frontier,  partly  through  choice, 
but  mainly  from  necessity,  may  have  neglected  the 
duties  to  which  they  had  formerly  been  accustomed, 
but  their  respect  for  the  word,  its  ordinances,  and  its 


1 96  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

ministers,  had  never  failed.  The  pioneer  may  have 
left  his  Bible  back  among  the  forsaken  properties 
of  home,  but  the  lessons  gathered  from  its  pages 
were  not  forgotten.  As  the  floating  elements  of 
which  it  was  composed  settled  down,  and  society 
began  to  assume  orderly  shape,  the  church  was 
felt  to  be  a  prime  desideratum.  But  how  was  its 
establishment  to  be  brought  about?  Domestic 
missionary  societies  were  not  in  existence.  La 
borers,  except  of  unevangelical  order,  would  not 
volunteer  without  hire ;  and  silver  and  gold  had 
they  none  to  offer.  As  in  the  case  of  the  other 
professions,  if  they  were  to  be  served  they  must 
serve  themselves.  Out  of  their  own  Galilee  must 
arise  their  own  prophets.  There  were  men  among 
them  willing  for  the  office;  but  to  be  fitted  for  it, 
according  to  orthodox  rule,  would  require  years  of 
preparatory  training  in  schools  far  removed  and 
difficult  of  access. 

But  a  new  order  of  the  priesthood  had  lately 
arisen.  Rev.  John  Wesley,  of  the  Church  of  Eng 
land,  impressed  with  the  conviction  that  he  was 
divinely  appointed  for  some  extraordinary  work, 
carried  his  enthusiasm  so  far  as  to  run  into  certain 
irregularities,  on  account  of  which  he  was  debarred 
the  privilege  of  the  pulpit.  Not  to  be  silenced,  he 
invited  hearers,  and  in  the  open  air  at  Moorfields 
addressed  the  multitude.  So  great  was  the  success 
of  the  experiment  that  he  was  induced  to  persevere 
in  it,  making  frequent  journeys  abroad  through  the 


THE  METHODIST. 


197 


country,  and  preaching  daily  in  the  streets,  fields, 
and  cemeteries,  before  large  and  admiring  assem 
blies.  Although  he  himself  maintained  to  the  end 
his  connection  with  the  Episcopal  Church,  his 
labors  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  a  separate 
ecclesiastical  organization,  which  spread  rapidly  at 
home,  and  in  due  time  extended  beyond  the  ocean. 
To  look  after  the  spiritual  interests  of  the  classes 
which  were  formed  in  different  localities,  "leaders" 
were  appointed  from  among  the  laity,  who  were 
authorized  to  exercise  all  the  ordinary  functions  of 
the  preacher.  A  "call"  to  that  post,  without  re 
gard  to  intellectual  fitness,  was  the  single  qualifica 
tion  required.  It  was  the  style  of  institution  that 
suited  the  wants  of  the  frontier  precisely.  The 
young  forester,  abandoning  his  axe  and  rifle  at  the 
cabin  door  as  the  disciples  their  nets  by  the  sea, 
took  up  his  easy  license  and  started  abroad,  the 
duly  commissioned  standard-bearer  of  the  Faith. 
Its  solitary  places  awakened  at  the  sound  of  his 
voice  crying  in  the  wilderness.  His  labors  pros 
pered,  his  circuits  widened,  and  soon,  throughout 
the  length  and  the  breadth  of  the  land,  the  Meth 
odist  was  known,  famously  and  familiarly,  as,  par 
eminence,  the  Minister  of  the  West, — the  Black- 
Rob  oft!  e  Border. 


198  BLACK-ROBES. 


II. 


THE  ARREST,   AWAKENING,  CONVICTION,    CONVERSION, 
AND  THE  CALL  OF  THE  PREACHER. 

A  GLANCE  at  his  earlier  life,  his  adventures, 
and  his  experiences,  will  be  appropriate  as 
serving  to  illustrate  the  character  of  the  Methodist 
preacher  of  the  border.  Abundant  facilities  for 
this  purpose'  are  offered  in  the  autobiographies 
which  he  has  contributed  for  the  popular  edifica 
tion  and  entertainment.  Their  details  present  him 
in  the  various  circumstances  and  vicissitudes  of  his 
career :  as  a  thoughtless  worldling,  weoMed  to  un 
hallowed  pursuits  and  amusements  ;  as  a  volup 
tuary,  tempted  and  fallen  into  sin  ;  as  an  alarmed 
offender  led  to  penitence;  and  as  the  humbled 
creature  of  conviction  made  the  hopeful  subject 
of  conversion.  The  portrayal  is  thorough  and 
complete. 

He  is  generally  born  of  poor  but  respectable 
parents.  More  or  less  religious  influence  has 
been  brought  to  bear  upon  him  in  his  childhood ; 
usually  —  although  his  father  has  not  always 
proved  delinquent — through  the  instrumentality  of 
his  mother ;  herself  an  old  Virginia  Presbyterian 
most  likely,  unless,  under  the  eloquence  of  White- 
field,  made  a  convert  to  the  creed  of  the  Moor- 


THE  METHODIST.  199 

fields  Reformer.  His  Christian  education,  like  his 
secular,  however,  has  been,  at  best,  a  limited  one, 
not  often  extending  beyond  a  knowledge  of  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  the  Ten  Commandments,  and  a 
lesson  or  two  out  of  the  Mother's  Catechism.  Yet 
is  he  not  unaccustomed  to  the  forms  of  religious 
observance.  He  has  seen  church  service,  has  knelt 
at  evening  worship  in  the  family,  and  been  used  to 
the  "Now  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep"  of  his  own 
private  devotions.  Thus  far  experience  has  gone; 
giving  its  dash  of  color  to  his  life,  its  faint  outline 
of  impression  to  his  character,  to  die  out  utterly, 
or  attain  a  ripe  finish  of  shape  and  complexion, 
as  future  contingencies  may  determine, — thus  far, 
and  no  farther. 

In  his  youth  we  find  him,  if  not  born  on  Western 
soil,  drifted  thither  with  the  tide  of  emigration,  one 
of  a  still  unbroken  household  group,  gone  in  quest 
of  better  faring  to  the  border.  The  old  home-altar 
is  re-established,  and  its  ceremonies  attempted 
anew,  but  the  experiment  staggers ;  with  the 
public  administration  of  the  ordinances  neglected, 
example  decays  at  the  fireside;  the  zeal  of  the 
votary  languishes,  and  anon  the  form  even  of 
the  simple  domestic  ritual  drops  into  desuetude. 
The  reins  of  discipline  relax ;  the  disembarrassed 
boy,  eager  to  profit  by  the  release,  throws  himself 
with  entire  abandonment,  like  an  impatient  hound 
freed  from  his  leash,  or  a  colt  from  its  tether,  into 
whatever  scheme  of  pleasure  first  offers  or  best 


200  BLA  CK- ROBES. 

attracts.  He  has  an  ear  for  music, — an  eye  for 
motion;  a  fiddle  and  a  ball-room,  the  "Arkansas 
Traveler"  and  a  Virginia  hoe-down,  are  irresisti 
ble  allurements.  He  hears, — sees,  —  engages  a 
partner  for  the  next  set,  and  the  text  of  the  Ten 
Commandments  begins  to  fade ;  when  he  most 
needs  to  remember,  he  first  forgets  his  "  Lead  us 
not  into  temptation."  Or  he  has  a  taste  for  play, 
— enters  the  card-room,  soon  learns  to  hold  his 
hand,  and  pockets  his  hazards,  too ;  has  his  steady 
hours  at  the  table,  and  is  presently  the  devoted 
servant  of  seven-up,  old  sledge,  and  poker.  Or  the 
easily  besetting  sin  of  the  love  of  horse-flesh  over 
reaches  him,  and  he  takes  to  the  race-course,  backs 
his  charger,  leaps  to  the  contest,  and  over  a  broader 
way  and  with  other  goal  and  guerdon  ahead  than 
he  entered  for,  rides  to  win — and  to  lose.  Fairly 
enlisted  in  the  devil's  service,  his  progress  does  not 
halt.  He  scoffs  at  morality ;  he  swears;  he  drinks; 
he  frolics ;  he  fights,  and  is  soon  proficient  in  all 
the  gentlemanly  vices  of  the  backwoods. 

It  is  entertaining  to  notice  with  what  a  flavor  of 
fondness  the  reverend  autobiographer  looks  back 
from  his  later  lenten  standpoint  and  lingers  over 
this  wild,  licentious  carnival-period  in  his  life  !  how 
his  appetite  seems  to  whet;  and  his  chaps  to  melt, 
at  the  mere  recollection  of  the  savory  flesh-pots  of 
the  demoralized,  discarded,  dear  old  Egypt !  Nor 
is  he,  indeed,  ever  entirely  liberated  from  the 
tyranny  of  the  passions  to  which  he  then  sue- 


THE  METHODIST.  2OI 

cumbed.  Jacob  Young,  the  reverend,  had  always 
a  fancier's  eye  for  a  steed,  and  boasts  of  the  fine 
Arabian  horse  on  which  he  threaded  the  morasses 
and  swam  the  streams  in  his  circuit-ridings.  His 
original  relish  for  the  ring  which  Peter  the  Sinner 
had  cultivated  was  not  totally  lost  to  Peter  the 
Saint,  in  Cartwright's  conversion;  and  the  gusto  is 
eminently  professional  with  which  he  tells,  through 
all  the  particulars,  of  a  personal  rencounter  with  a 
certain  disturber  of  the  peace  at  a  camp-meeting, 
in  which,  after  a  solid  round  or  two,  he  came  off 
victorious ;  and  how,  on  another  occasion,  he  took 
an  attitude  and  pluckily  called  out,  "  Don't  you 
attempt  to  strike  me,"  to  a  certain  Major  L.,  who 
had  "  clinched  his  fists"  with  that  ostensible  pur 
pose  in  view,  "  for  if  you  do,  and  the  devil  gets  out 
of  you  into  me,  I  shall  give  you  the  worst  whip 
ping  you  ever  got  in  all  your  life." 

But  the  carnal  diversions  of  society  by  free  in 
dulgence  lose,  at  length,  their  attraction,  and  then 
the  satiate  profligate,  perhaps,  takes  a  fancy,  like 
Finley,  for  roving, — straps  his  blanket  on  his  back, 
shoulders  his  rifle,  and  is  off  for  the  woods.  The 
life  has  its  trials,  but  is  one  of  ever-varying  adven 
ture,  the  excitements  of  which  afford  abundant 
recompense  for  whatever  of  danger  or  discomfort 
may  attend  its  pursuit.  It  is  not  necessarily  a 
wicked  one.  To  shoot  a  bear,  and  make  a  break 
fast  next  morning  on  the  rare  delicacy  of  his  paw, 
baked  slowly  overnight  in  the  hot  ashes  of  the 


202  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

camp-fire ;  to  bag  a  wild  turkey  and  dine  upon  it 
at  mid-day;  or  to  dispatch,  by  good  luck,  a  buffalo 
and  partake  of  his  tongue  with  one's  tea  (whatever 
the  decoction  may  be)  in  the  evening ;  to  bring 
down  a  raccoon  or  a  wild-cat,  and,  in  a  strait,  make 
a  meal  upon  either,  when  roasts  that  might  be 
preferable  are  not  procurable;  or  to  make  merchan 
dise  of  the  hides  and  furs  of  all  of  them, — ought 
scarcely  to  occasion  pangs  of  remorse,  and,  indeed, 
do  not ;  but  the  Sabbath  has  been  desecrated, — the 
crack  of  the  rifle  has  disturbed  its  hallowed  rest, 
and  the  inheritance  of  a  guilty,  self-accusing  con 
science,  which  shall  find  a  discovery  one  day,  is 
entailed  upon  the  profaner. 

As  poison  is  administered  to  purge  from  poison, 
so  the  very  excess  of  indulgence  often  leads  to  the 
correction  of  the  habit.  The  sports  to  which  the 
young  devotee  is  addicted  have  found  him,  season 
in  and  season  out,  a  faithful  patron.  The  appointed 
time  has  always  seen  him  at  the  appointed  place. 
He  has  sustained  his  part  well,  — taken  to  it  heartily, 
enjoyed  it  lustily,  and  left  it  at  last  without  a  feel 
ing  of  disquietude,  unless  it  might  be  one  of  regret 
that  the  hours  of  delight  should  have  proved  so 
evanescent.  And  yet  once,  in  the  order  of  Provi 
dence,  it  happens,  after  a  run  of  luck  high  in  his 
favor  at  the  card-table,  perhaps,  or  at  the  close  of 
a  more  than  ordinarily  brilliant  scene  of  festivity,  as 
on  his  favorite  racer  he  rides  towards  home  in  the 
night,  he  is  suddenly  arrested  on  the  way  by  the 


THE  METHODIST. 


203 


miraculous  shining  of  a  great  light,  such  as  chal 
lenged  the  awe  of  Saul  of  Tarsus  on  his  way  to 
Damascus.  The  sight  staggers  him.  He  begins 
to  reflect.  He  feels  guilty  and  condemned.  Of  a 
sudden  the  blood  rushes  to  his  head.  His  heart 
palpitates.  In  a  few  minutes  he  turns  blind.  An 
awful  impression  rests  on  his  mind  that  death  has 
come,  and  that  he  is  unprepared  to  die,  when  much 
alarmed  he  lifts  his  voice  to  heaven  and  asks  God  to 
have  mercy  on  him.  Reaching  home,  he  retires  to 
bed,  but  finds  little  rest,  and  rises  in  the  morning 
feeling  wretched  beyond  expression.  He  tries  to 
read  the. Testament,  requests  his  father  to  sell  his 
race-horse  for  him,  and  hands  over  his  pack  of 
cards  to  his  mother,  who  throws  them  into  the  fire. 
It  is  the  dawn  of  a  new  and  momentous  era  in 
his  life.  Conviction  has  overtaken  him.  Like  an 
attack  of  the  bowel-complaint  or  the  measles,  and 
with  symptoms  as  clearly  marked  through  the 
various  stages  of  progress,  it  lays  hold  of  him, 
vexes  him,  and  brings  him  down.  He  complains 
of  broken  sleep ;  of  a  fevered,  irregular  pulse  ;  loss 
of  appetite ;  dismal  apprehensions  ;  ghastly  visions 
and  nightmares.  To  shake  ofF  the  disease  he  re 
sorts  to  remedies, — the  accustomed  ones,  first,  of  a 
glass  of  whisky,  or  a  turn  on  the  turf,  or  a  set-to 
at  seven-up.  These  only  aggravate  the  trouble, 
and  are  dismissed  for  other  and  better  expedients. 
Retiring  to  a  solitary  grove,  he  spends  hours  in 
meditation,  moaning  like  a  dove  that  has  lost  his 


204  BLACK-ROBES. 

mate,  and  crying  like  the  crane  in  the  desert ;  but 
his  distress  does  not  abate.  Returning  to  society 
again,  a  sympathizing  sister,  likely,  suggests  sing 
ing  and  prayer,  which,  when  had,  afford  some  re 
lief.  An  effect  of  this  treatment  is  weeping,  and  a 
plentiful  flow  of  tears  is  comforting.  Dreams  are 
found  to  be  refreshing  ;  active  exercise  in  the  open 
air  serves  a  good  purpose,  and  repeating  the  nar 
rative  of  his  experience  in  the  presence  of  atten 
tive  listeners  at  the  prayer-meeting  is  peculiarly 
soothing. 

At  length,  after  a  longer  or  shorter  siege  of  trial, 
his  griefs  suddenly  disappear.  A  flash  of  light, 
"shining  from  the  south  part  of  heaven,"  gleams  in 
upon  his  soul :  he  is  translated  into  the  kingdom, 
—born  into  a  new  sphere  of  glorious  existence, 
and  finds  peace — ecstatic  peace — in  believing.  As 
he  imagines ;  but  prematurely,  as  it  turns  out,  for 
anon  he  discovers  that  the  deliverance  upon  which 
he  has  congratulated  himself  is  a  delusion, — the 
translation  a  mistake,— -the  new  birth  a  miscarriage. 
A  lapse  from  grace,  either  to  magnify  the  virtue, 
or  to  exemplify  a  dogma,  would  seem  to  be  an  ab 
solute  necessity  as  a  precedent  to  its  perfect  attain 
ment  ;  and  he  lapses.  Still,  though  fallen,  he  is 
not  lost. 

A  second  awakening  takes  place,  attended  by 
similar  phenomena  with  the  first,  and  working 
towards  the  same  salutary  end ;  but  the  progress 
is  blocked  by  serious  obstacles  which  were  not 


THE  METHODIST.  2O$ 

encountered  before.  Then,  oppressed  with  a  sense 
of  sinfulness,  and  anxious  only  on  the  score  of  for 
giveness,  he  had  addressed  himself  accordingly; 
content  to  implore,  "  God  be  merciful  to  me,  a 
sinner !"  and  satisfied,  as  the  ground  of  his  hope  in 
Jesus,  with  a  faith  whose  only  and  all-sufficient 
article  was  the  unwritten  one — inexpressible,  but 
fathomable  easily  and  infallible  —  of  the  poor 
woman  of  Capernaum, — a  lifted  finger,  and  a  touch 
of  the  hem  of  his  garment.  But  his  theological 
studies — for  he  has  read,  since  conviction,  the 
New  Testament  to  some  extent — have  made  him 
an  "inquirer"  in  a  new  sense.  Now,  he  cannot 
accept  grace  unless  he  understands  precisely  how 
he  gets  it,  on  what  terms,  at  whose  cost,  and 
whether  he  holds  it  inalienably,  or  at  the  option, 
liable  to  be  revoked,  of  the  donor.  He  hesitates 
to  reach  at  the  purifying  garment  until  he  masters 
the  mystery  of  its  manufacture;  how  it  is  woven, 
after  what  pattern,  and  of  what  thread, — particularly 
the  hem  of  it.  The  church  (as  comprehended  in 
his  notion  of  that  institution)  has  become  his 
object  of  interest  instead  of  Christ.  He  must  find 
a  way  to  follow  the  Way  already  provided.  To 
win  the  crown  he  must  run  the  gauntlet  of  the 
creeds.  Of  Presbyterian  parentage,  quite  likely,  he 
has  naturally  a  preference  for  that  persuasion.  "  If 
I  could  only  convince  myself  that  Calvinism  is 
true,"  he  says,  "I  would  be  satisfied."  But  he 
trips  at  the  horrid  idea  of  the  doctrine  of  Particular 
18 


206  BLA  CK-R  OSES. 

Election  and  Reprobation,  and  stumbles  against 
numerous  other  heresies,  until  finally  he  sees,  "  as 
clearly  as  that  two  and  two  make  four,  that  if  the 
Bible  is  true  the  Old  Confession  is  false."  The 
converse  of  the  proposition  holds  good,  of  course ; 
and,  as  he  does  not  care  yet  to  relinquish  the 
Bible,  further  passage  by  the  Westminster  route  is 
given  up,  and  search  made  for  another.  He  is 
attracted  by  the  New  Lights ;  but  "  when  he  hears 
their  doctrine  on  the  Supreme  Divinity  of  Jesus 
Christ,  he  will  not  go  with  them,"  impressed  as  he 
is  "with  a  clear  and  powerful  demonstration  of  the 
truth,  that  if  Christ  is  not  God  He  is  powerless  to 
save."  He  tries  the  Shaking  Quakers ;  but  their 
worship  is  so  ridiculous  that  the  bare  thought  of 
following  up  on  that  line  is  preposterous.  The 
Seceders  invite  attention ;  but  the  professors  of 
that  school  are  too  scandalously  immoral,  being 
addicted  to  intoxication,  and  having  scarcely  the 
form  of  godliness  about  them.  Communion  with 
such  a  circle  is  out  of  the  question.  Then  he  tries 
to  carve  out  a  way  of  his  own,  along  which  to  travel 
to  heaven  alone ;  but,  as  one  astray  in  the  wilder 
ness,  without  star  or  compass  to  guide  him,  is  apt 
to  wander  back  circuitously  to  his  starting-point, 
he  shortly~finds  himself  bringing  up  at  the  old 
booth  on  the  race-course,  and  that  scheme  is 
abandoned. 

At  this  juncture  it  so  happens  that  a  challenge 
salutes  the  inquirer  from  a  new  quarter  entirely. 


THE  METHODIST.  2O/ 

Wesleyanism,  surely  established  now  in  the  East, 
has  reached  the  West.  Brother  Hickman,  on  a 
tour  of  observation  (1776),  and  Lewis  Lunford,  the 
Patrick  Henry  of  the  pulpit  (1779), — first  of  their 
sect  to  penetrate  the  wilderness, — are  assembling 
the  backwoodsmen  in  the  cabins,  barns,  or  open 
woods,  and  addressing  them  with  an  eloquence 
which  is  irresistible  and  convincing.  He  joins  the 
throng  in  attendance  at  their  meetings, — hears,  is 
enraptured,  and  exults  at  the  thought  that  at  last 
he  has  hit  upon  the  manifest  highway  to  glory. 
He  first  appears  at  these  assemblages,  which  are 
kept  up  daily,  and  is  thoroughly  awakened,  per 
haps  on  a  Monday.  On  Tuesday  he  is  brought 
under  profound  conviction,  and  is  so  distressingly 
affected  that  when  he  flees  to  the  woods  for  relief 
"  he  does  not  dare  to  take  his  gun  with  him,  for 
fear  he  should,  in  the  hour  of  the  power  of  dark 
ness,  commit  suicide."  The  dawn  of  Wednesday 
finds  him  praying  and  wrestling,  which  exercise, 
with  fasting  and  humiliation,  is  maintained  through 
the  day  and  all  the  night  following.  On  Thursday 
he  is  about  to  resume  his  devotions,  when  sud 
denly,  at  say  twenty-two  minutes  before  six  in 
the  morning,  "  the  light  pours  upon  him  in  such 
a  manner,  and  in  such  a  measure,"  that  he  falls  to 
the  earth,  shouting  and  praising  God,  so  as  to  be 
heard  over  the  neighborhood,  and  is  converted. 
He  has  entered  the  second  time  into  the  womb,  and 
is  born  again. 


208  BLACK-ROBES. 

In  the  working  out  of  the  reformatory  process 
which  the  "  seeker  "  undergoes,  each  new  phase  of 
development  is  signalized  by  its  attending  super 
natural  manifestation.  God  specially  interposes 
and  is  present  in  every  act  of  his  grace,  not  spirit 
ually  and  metaphorically,  but  really  and  sensibly ; 
as  does,  and  is  also,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Prince 
of  Darkness,  when  alarmed  for  his  interests  at  the 
detected  disloyalty  of  a  subject.  At  his  awakening, 
sudden  blindness  (each  step  in  the  proceeding  is 
always  noted  as  "sudden," — "instant," — "like  an 
electric  flash  ")  seizes  the  sinner.  Under  convic 
tion,  he  hears  a  voice  speaking  out  of  heaven  in 
syllables  of  censure  or  of  admonition,  and  quotes 
its  utterance ;  or  a  celestial  messenger  visits  and 
counsels  him  in  vision,  while  he  sleeps;  or  the 
devil  meets  him  in  a  cavern  in  the  woods,  whither 
he  has  retired  to  pray,  in  such  unquestionable 
guise,  and  with  so  unmistakable  an  intent  "  to  seize 
and  drag  him  down  to  hell,  soul  and  body,"  that  he 
starts  to  his  feet  affrighted,  takes  to  his  heels,  and 
runs,  full  speed,  to  his  mother,  knitting  at  home 
in  her  cabin,  for  protection.  Conversion  comes, 
attended  with  a  literal  display  of  light  ineffable  and 
full  of  glory :  the  subject  of  it  distinctly  hears  a 
voice  announce,  "Thy  sins  are  all  forgiven  thee !" — 
gives  attention  with  ear  and  eye,  and  really  wit 
nesses  the  mountains  and  the  hills  break  forth  into 
singing,  and  all  the  trees  of  the  fields  clap  their 
hands,  in  irrepressible  ecstasy  at  the  event. 


THE  METHODIST.  209 

After  conversion  comes  the  Call.  The  "convict" 
spends  an  hour  following  the  crisis  of  his  rescue, 
in  a  delirium  of  rapture,  catching,  peradventure, 
his  wife  in  his  arms,  running  round  the  house,  and 
shouting,  "Salvation  !  salvation!"  so  that  his  neigh 
bors  think  him  drunk  or  crazy.  While  thus  exer 
cised,  a  voice  falls  "  like  a  falling  star"  from  heaven, 
saying,  "  Go,  preach  my  gospel  !"  upon  which  he 
immediately  responds,  "Yes,  Lord,  if  thou  wilt  go 
with  me."  Forthwith,  not  tarrying  to  confer  with 
flesh  and  blood,  but  hurrying  out  as  fast  as  he  can  to 
the  nearest  cabin,  he  calls  its  inmates  together  and 
begins  to  proclaim  a  risen  Saviour  who  has  power 
on  earth  to  forgive  sins.  Or  perchance  he  may 
hesitate  at  the  divinely  indicated  line  of  duty ;  he 
may,  with  modest  emphasis,  deny  his  fitness  for  the 
priestly  office, — may  withdraw  to  the  woods  and  tell 
his  Maker  that  if  it  is  pressed  to  the  alternative  that 
he  must  preach  the  gospel  or  go  to. hell,  he  must  go 
to  hell,  for  he  has  not  the  least  qualification  for  the 
work.  As  results  of  this  resistance  to  the  designs  of 
Providence,  he  loses  all  comfort,  becomes  gloomy^ 
and  despondent,  and  from  a  state  of  robust  health 
is  reduced  almost  to  a  walking  skeleton.  But  the 
invisible,  mighty  pressure  continues.  There  is  no 
mistaking,  nor  indeed  any  thought  of  questioning, 
its  source.  At  length  he  ceases  to  oppose, — with 
becoming  humility  acquiesces  in  the  appointment, 
— puts  on  the  harness,  and,  to  his  speedy  convales 
cence,  and  the  healthy  restoration  of  his  dwindled 
18* 


2 1  o  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

flesh  and  depressed  spirits,  enters  the  lists  and  takes 
the  field.  Saul  of  Tarsus  at  sunrise  is  Paul  the 
Apostle  at  noon,  and  appoints  to  meet  and  address 
his  impenitent  friends  at  Mars'  Hill  by  early  candle 
light  in  the  evening. 


III. 

THE    PREACHER    IN    THE    PULPIT. 

THE  idea  of  "preparation"  for  the  ministry  was 
one  that  never  found  favor  for  a  moment  in  the 
Methodist  mind.  Learning  was  regarded  as  not 
only  unnecessary,  but  actually  objectionable,  in  the 
Black-Robe;  who  was.  presumed  to  be  chosen  of 
God  as  his  officer,  either  by  act  of  foreordination, 
opposed  though  such  a  view  was  to  a  favorite  de 
nominational  tenet,  or  by  special  election,  just  as  he 
was  ;  and  for  whom,  in  such  a  case,  to  try  to  improve 
upon  his  qualifications,  would  be  to  doubt  the  wis 
dom  and  defeat  an  evident  design  of  the  Almighty. 
The  blind,  notwithstanding  the  proverb,  were  the 
true  leaders  of  the  blind.  Rev.  Jacob  Young,  at  one 
time,  thought  to  try  the  experiment  of  a  literary, 
scientific,  and  theological  course,  but  soon  found 
that  it  would  not  work.  God,  in  token  of  disap 
proval,  hid  his  countenance  from  him;  the  Bible 
became  a  sealed  book;  he  lost  his  comfort,  was 


THE  METHODIST.  211 

attacked  with  a  violent  fever,  and  severe  pain  in  his 
head,  and  only  got  well  when  he  abandoned  letters 
and  fell  back  on  inspiration.  One  of  his  cotempora- 
ries  testifies  that  he  would  rather  have  the  gift  of  a 
devil-dislodging  power  than  all  the  college  lore  or 
biblical-institute  knowledge  that  could  be  obtained 
from  mortal  man ;  and  gives  it  as  his  opinion  that 
the  best  course  of  preparation  for  the  pulpit  is  to 
take  your  sinner,  shake  him  awhile  over  hell,  then 
knock  the  scales  from  his  eyes,  and,  without  any 
previous  theological  training,  send  him  out  straight 
way  to  preach  Jesus  and  the  Resurrection.  A 
writer,  while  he  records  it,  boasts  of  the  fact  that, 
among  the  thousands  of  traveling  and  local  preach 
ers  in  his  church,  there  were  not  more  than  fifty 
that  had  anything  more  than  a  common  English 
education,  and  scores  of  them  not  that ;  and  that 
not  one  of  them  was  ever  trained  in  a  theological 
school,  yet  hundreds  of  them  had  more  seals  to 
their  ministry  than  all  the  sapient,  downy  D.D.'s 
in  modern  times,  presiding  in  the  various  institu 
tions  throughout  the  land.  These  plainly-spoken 
views  were  not  entertained  by  the  commoners 
merely  of  the  profession,  but  had  the  concurrence 
of  the  chief  dignitaries  as  well, — Bishop  Asbury 
among  the  rest. 

The  study  of  men  was  recommended  as  the  solely 
profitable  one  ;  that  of  books,  condemned  as  super 
fluous.  Christ  had  no  literary  college  or  university, 
no  theological  school  or  biblical  institute,  to  train 


212  BLACK-ROBES. 

his  disciples  in.  On  the  contrary,  He  showed  his 
contempt  for  all  such  establishments  by  selecting 
his  followers  from  the  lowest  and  least-enlightened 
classes  of  society.  True,  the  Black-Robe  of  the 
better-informed  minority,  as  we  have  seen,  was  not 
utterly  and  absolutely  unskilled  in  letters.  With 
the  print  in  clear,  round  type,  under  a  favorable 
light,  and  with  careful  attention,  having  previously 
conned  the  lesson,  he  could  read  a  chapter  tolerably 
intelligibly  from  the  New  Testament,  or  the  lines  of 
a  stanza  from  the  hymn-book.  As  a  somewhat  com 
mon,  although  not  invariable,  rule,  he  could  also 
write.  On  one  recorded  occasion  he  was  requested 
by  a  lady,  under  whose  roof  he  was  tarrying  for  a 
night,  while  on  the  tour  of  his  circuit,  to  act  as  her 
amanuensis  in  a  trifling  matter  of  correspondence. 
Blushingly,  and  with  unfeigned  diffidence,  he  as 
sumed  the  task,  and  it  is  with  a  pardonable  air  of 
proud  satisfaction  that  he  relates  to  the  narrator 
of  the  incident  the  success — rather,  it  would  seem, 
to  the  surprise  of  both  parties — attending  the  ex 
periment.  The  Presbyterian  preacher  who  had 
served  the  apprenticeship  required  by  the  school 
to  which  he  belonged, — who  was  manufactured 
like  a  head  of  lettuce  in  a  hot-house, — and  who  was 
wont  to  sermonize  from  manuscripts,  was  an  object 
of  mingled  pity  and  disdain.  His  messages,  like 
cold  meats,  carved  no  matter  how  neatly,  were 
stale,  flat,  and  unpalatable,  which  the  border  sinner 
might  taste  once  in  awhile,  perhaps,  but,  used 


THE  METHODIST.  213 

to  hot  and  savory  indulgences,  could  never  be 
tempted  to  accept  as  a  standing  diet.  The  Method 
ist  would  set  the  world  on  fire  while  the  Presby 
terian  —  formal,  precise,  and  measured  as  to  his 
deliveries — was  lighting  his  matches. 

Sir  Geoffrey  Hudson  could  wield  a  sword  and 
join  as  valiantly  as  Prince  Rupert  in  a  sally  against 
the  train-bands  of  London,  and  with  as  full  a 
trust  in  the  efficiency  of  the  blade  he  flourished, 
although  there  were  but  twenty  inches  of  him,  all 
told,  to  show  in  comparison  with  the  full  stature 
of  his  illustrious  fellow-martialist.  The  Methodist 
Black-Robe  was  not  of  inferior  virtue  to  the  pygmy 
knight  in  one  striking  particular  at  least.  Re 
posing  a  confidence  in  his  own  power  of  achieve 
ment  that  was  never  shaken  by  disaster,  he  not  only 
felt  himself  the  peer  of  any  ecclesiastical  Rupert, 
the  princeliest  that  ever  handled  spiritual  iron,  but 
would  volunteer  a  charge,  unsupported  and  alone, 
against  all  the-  train-bands  of  Christendom  com 
bined.  There  was  no  question  within  the  range 
of  theological  inquiry  which  he  did  not  hold  him 
self  reaSy,  at  a  moment's  notice,  to  solve  to  the 
entire  satisfaction  of  any  audience.  He  unolerstood 
all  mysteries  and  all  knowledge  :  points  of  doctrine, 
made  the  lifetime  subjects  of  investigation  by  less 
enlightened  students  of  the  word,  and  perhaps  not 
clearly  settled  then,  he  was  ready  to  pronounce 
upon  off-hand,  and  with  an  air  of  decision  that 
would  have  done  credit  to  an  Ecumenical  Council. 


2i4  BLACK-ROBES. 

It  was  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  match  him  at 
a  controversy.  He  could  settle  the  business  of  a 
Calvinistic  professor  on  the  subject  of  Election, 
handsomely  and  conclusively,  at  a  single  tilt,  and 
within  the  space  of  two  minutes.  "  A  few  ques 
tions,"  says  Finley,  "would  invariably  silence  him." 
The  Baptist  he  found  rather  a  tough  customer,  but 
in  ordinary  cases  he  could  floor  his  antagonist  of 
that  cloth  in  half  a  dozen  rounds  at  furthest.  He 
could  ring  the  changes  on  Bapto  with  a  facility  that 
was  marvelous  in  the  ears  of  the  multitude,  who 
were  not  always  aware  of  the  extent  of  his  acquire 
ments,  and  who  did  not  know  that  from  his  one 
acquaintance  with  the  original  texts  in  both  cases 
he  might,  with  the  same  skill  precisely,  have  gone 
into  the  discussion  of  a  disputed  hieroglyph  on  an 
Egyptian  obelisk. 

In  the  matter  of  pronunciation  he  was  somewhat 
irregular,  not  conforming  exactly  to  the  rules  in 
request  among  acknowledged  authorities.  His 
accents,  dropped  pretty  much  at  random,  were  apt 
to  fall  where  they  were  not  designed  to  fit;  his 
vowels  were  not  invariably  true  to  their"  colors ; 
not  a  few  of  the  consonants  used  to  double  duty 
would  strike  out  in  one  capacity  when  they  should 
have  served  in  another ;  while  syllables,  especially 
the  inferior  ones  of  the  heavier  combinations,  were 
sadly  slighted,  and,  indeed,  sometimes  ignored 
altogether.  Words  were  liable  to  similar  discour 
tesy,  being  frequently  introduced,  under  perverted 


THE  METHODIST.  215 

names,  into  strange  company,  and  made  not  only 
to  suffer  themselves,  on  the  suspicion  of  false 
pretense,  by  the  association,  but  now  and  then  to 
implicate  their  new  neighbors  as  conniving  at  the 
imposition.  As  for  language,  his  vocabulary  was 
not  very  extensive,  but  its  resources  were  suffi 
ciently  abundant  for  his  purpose.  What  he  knew, 
he  knew  all  the  more  intimately  for  not  knowing 
more.  The  telling,  trenchant,  hell-fire-and-damna- 
tion  dialect  of  the  turf,  the  bar,  and  the  ball-room 
he  had  carried  over  with  him  in  his  "brimstone 
wallet,"  as  he  facetiously  terms  it,  at  his  conver 
sion,  and  since  kept  in  readiness  to  shake  over  the 
heads  of  insulting  and  profane  sinners  among  his 
hearers. 

In  the  pulpit  the  Methodist  Black-Robe  was  in 
his  element.  The  unembarrassed  step  with  which 
he  mounted  the  platform ;  his  seemingly  half-uncon 
sciousness  of  the  act,  as  with  a  glance  of  customary 
— so  he  would  have  it  appear — rather  than  curious 
observation  he  lifted  his  eyes  and  swept  the  space 
filled  by  his  hearers,  as  a  chess-player  does  his  board, 
ere  the  game  quite  opens,  to  see  that  the  pieces  are 
complete  and  properly  adjusted  in  their  places  ;  the 
showy  carelessness  with  which  he  extracted  his 
folios  from  his  person — it  was  his  boast  that  he 
carried  all  his  library,  Testament,  hymn-book,  and 
"  Discipline"  composing  the  catalogue,  in  his 
pocket — and  laid  them  down,  with  much  delibera 
tion,  volume  by  volume,  on  the  desk;  and  the 


2 1 6  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

gratifying  complacency  with  which,  flourishing 
his  handkerchief,  he  proceeded  to  clear  his  throat, 
and  his  nose,  violently,  of  such  imaginary  or  real 
obstruction  to  clear  speech  as  might  lodge,  or  be 
supposed  to  lodge,  in  either, — all  were  admirably 
calculated,  and  intended,  as  so  many  advertise 
ments  to  the  people  that,  in  the  speaker  about  to 
address  them,  they  beheld  the  right  man  in  the 
right  place,  and  no  mistake, — one  who  was  per 
fectly  at  home  in  it,  and  thorough  master  of  the 
situation. 

His  sermons  were  originals  ;  not  borrowed  or 
copied  from  the  standard  styles  of  the  time,  but 
fashioned  after  a  pattern  peculiarly  their  own.  In 
their  composition  he  did  not  allow  himself  to  be 
hampered  by  the  restrictions  ordinarily  regarded  as 
indispensable  to  excellence  in  the  art.  He  did  not 
adhere  with  undeviating  fidelity  to  the  straight 
forward  pursuit  of  an  argument,  preferring  to 
loiter  by  the  way,  as  attractive  fancies  now  and 
again  sprang  in  his  path  to  invite  to  dalliance  ; 
or,  tempted  by  a  suggestion, — butterfly-like  darted 
up  to  divert  him, — to  follow  the  lure  in  its  excur 
sive  flight,  to  the  relinquishment  of  the  line  of  his 
main  purpose  altogether.  His  texts — or  mottoes, 
to  speak  more  accurately,  because  they  rather  in 
dicated  than  really  formed  his  subjects  of  decla 
mation — were  selections  from  the  Scriptures  of 
such  passages  or  phrases  as  might  be  introduced 
with  effect  to  swell  a  sentence  or  round  a  period, — 


THE  METHODIST.  2 1/ 

which,  with  wonderful  facility,  he  could  contrive 
to  do,  let  the  tone  of  the  topic  vary  as  it  might, 
— "for  he  played  on  a  harp  of  a  thousand  strings  /" 
His  treatment  of  a  subject  varied  according  to 
the  circumstances  attending  its  delivery.  The 
several  styles  from  which  he  had  to  choose  were 
"  the  argumentative,  the  dogmatic,  the  postidary, 
the  persuasive,  the  punitive,  the  combative,,  the 
logical,  and  the  poetic."  As  affording  a  broader 
field  for  the  exercise  of  his  talents,  and  as,  indeed, 
capable,  in  his  hands,  of  embodying  all  the  effective 
force  without  the  heaviness  of  the  others,  the 
"  poetic"  stood  in  chief  favor.  The  preliminary 
details  of  his  discourses  were  managed  with  a  tone 
and  action  remarkable  for  moderation,  and  the 
steady,  stately  tenor  of  their  rendering.  Here  it 
was  he  exhibited  himself  in  his  more  solid,  "argu 
mentative  "  mood ;  seizing  the  occasion,  as  the 
most  opportune,  for  a  specimen-display  of  his 
qualities  in  reserve,  and  to  furnish  a  hint  of  the 
wind  and  bottom  to  be  depended  upon  when,  pres 
ently,  both  should  be  put  to  the  trial.  So,  on  the 
turf  in  his  sporting-days,  he  may  have  walked  his 
courser  round  and  about  the  starting-post,  to  show 
his  parts,  set  forth  his  points,  and  prove  his  train 
ing,  before  the  eyes  of  admiring  beholders,  ere 
opening  upon  the  proper  career,  where  the  glory 
came  in,  for  which  he  was  entered.  But  no  sooner 
was  this  ceremony  ended  and  the  moment  for 
"  business  "  arrived,  than  a  striking  change  became 
19 


2 1 8  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

apparent.  The  face  of  the  orator  flushed,  his  eye 
brightened  like  the  eyelids  of  the  morning,  the 
sonorous  voice  for  which  he  was  famous  let  out 
its  power,  and  "  his  gestures  grew  animated  as  the 
waftures  of  a  fiery  torch."  Poetry,  madly  broke 
loose,  took  to  wild  flight,  and,  cleaving  space,  went 
whirling  through  the  distances  without  regard  to 
laws  of  limitation:  ascending  up  to  heaven,  de 
scending  into  hell,  taking  the  wings  of  the  morning 
and  speeding  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea; 
plucking  bright  honors  from  the  moon,  sun,  stars, 
weaving  to  itself  garlands  from  the  lightning's 
wings,  toying  with  tempests,  and  grasping  infernal 
thunder,  black  fire,  and  horror  from  the  nether 
abysses. 

This  particular  style,  however,  was  not  sus 
tained  uninterruptedly  through  the  performance, 
but  was  relieved  at  appropriate  intervals  by  such  in 
tercalary  passages  of  pleasantry,  sarcasm,  ridicule, 
or  rebuke,  as  ordinarily,  having  a  direct  personal 
application,  could  not  fail  to  elicit  interest  and 
keep  wide  awake  the  attention  of  an  audience. 
Some  indiscreet  or  disorderly  sinner  would  violate 
a  custom,  or  otherwise  offend  against  decorum, 
during  service.  The  preacher,  perhaps  in  the 
midst  of  one  of  his  sublimest  soarings,  would 
pause,  point  a  lifted  finger  at  the  offender, — whose 
misdemeanor  may  have  been,  suppose,  that  he 
had  appropriated  accommodation  to  himself,  and 
made  a  conspicuous  show  of  it,  among  the  females 


„      THE  METHODIST.  219 

on  their  exclusive  side  of  the  house, — let  his  voice 
drop  from  its  strained  pitch  in  alt,  to  the  deep  bari 
tone  level  most  effective  for  conveyance  of  reproof, 
and,  after  stating  in  measured  terms  his  charge,  to 
identify  the  culprit  beyond  mistake,  would  say, 
"  I  mean  that  young  man  there,  standing  on  the 
seats  of  the  ladies,  with  a  ruffled  shirt  on,  and  I 
doubt  not  that  the  ruffled  shirt  was  borrowed." 
In  such-like  quaint  and  pleasing  episodes  the 
orator  could  indulge  at  his  pleasure,  and  with 
none  the  less  freedom,  that  under  protection  of 
his  cloth  he  knew  he  was  safely  sheltered  against 
retaliation.  And  yet  it  sometimes  happened,  as 
with  the  Rev.  C.  in  the  instance  quoted,  that  the 
party  denounced  would  kick  against  the  grievance. 
With  a  respect  for  propriety  which  the  clerical 
brother  might  have  imitated  to  advantage,  the 
ruffled  shirt  waited  until  the  congregation  was  dis 
missed,  and  then  quietly  informed  the  divine  that 
he  proposed  to  whip  him.  C.  accepted  the  chal 
lenge,  suggesting  that  they  should  retire  to  the 
woods  "  to  fight  it  out."  A  fence  lay  in  their 
way;  jumping  over  it,  C.  sprained  his  ankle,  and 
put  his  hand  to  his  side.  "  Damn  you,"  said  he 
of  the  ruffles,  suspicious  of  concealed  weapons, 
"  you're  feeling  for  a  dirk,  are  you  ?"  "  Yes,"  re 
plied  the  reverend, — which  was  not  strictly  true,  and 
indeed,  although  C.,  in  the  narration,  would  make 
it  appear  as  an  innocent  bit  of  facetiousness,  in  the 
fact  was  manifestly  intended  to  deceive  and  intimi- 


220  BLACK-ROBES. 

date, — "  yes,  and  I  will  give  you  the  benefit  of  all 
I  have,"  charging  at  once  on  the  enemy's  works 
as  he  said  it.  The  ruffled  shirt,  unarmed  as  he  was, 
made  a  leap  and  put  the  fence  between  himself  and 
his  opponent.  A  party  of  "rowdies,"  friends  and 
backers  of  the  priestly  pugilist,  joined  in;  the 
offender  was  surrounded,  bound  with  hickory-bark 
to  a  pole,  taken  to  a  pond  not  far  from  the  camp 
ground,  and  "  ducked  nearly  to  death."  Mr.  C, 
meanwhile,  stood  by  and  consented,  like  Paul  on 
a  somewhat  similar  occasion, — although  that  was 
before  the  apostle's  conversion.  He  refers  to  the 
whole  transaction  as  one  of  a  highly  amusing 
character. 

Comprehensively,  the  wit  of  the  preacher  may 
be  described  as  of  that  purely  Shakspearean  order 
which,  in  a  different  sphere,  and  more  recently,  has 
given  his  classical  reputation  to  a  conspicuous 
fancier  of  the  immortal  text,  and  who  stands  con 
nected,  in  the  popular  mind,  with  associations  of 
the  tented  arena,  motley  tights  and  tan-bark.  In 
this  connection,  by  the  way,  and  as  a  coincidence 
perhaps  deserving  notice,  a  characteristic  fact  is 
on  record,  which,  as  it  has  been  made,  personally, 
matter  of  special  parade,  each  in  his  own  ring,  by 
both  circuit- and  circus-rider,  should  be  mentioned; 
namely,  that  while  one,  as  a  strong  feature  for  his 
bills,  has  made  a  boast  of  his  "one-horse  show," 
so  has  the  other,  with  an  equal  flourish  on  the 
autobiographical  page,  of  his  "  one-man  congre- 


THE  METHODIST.  221 

gation."  Scrupulous  moralists  and  men  of  fas 
tidious  taste  might  take  exception,  now  and  then, 
to  the  sayings  of  such  Christian  orators  as  the 
"  Pulpit-Thumper,"  the  "  Bull-Dog,"  the  "  New 
Market  Devil,"  and  the  "Sinai  Thunderer"  in 
their  humorous  moods, — when  "  Mather  in  his  best 
comedy"  and  "Sheridan  in  his  funniest  farce" 
showed  not  'half  their  mirth-provoking  power, — 
and  yet  why  should  they,  when  prime  ministers 
of  the  communion,  grave  and  reverend  annalists 
of  the  times,  have  not  hesitated  to  excuse  and 
to  approve  ?  Under  which  canvas  could  it  have 
been  that  Mr.  Merryman  called  out,  "  Pray  on, 
Brother  Walker,  and  if  he  [an  obstreperous  inter- 
ferer]  cuts  up  any  capers,  I'll  down  him  and  hold 
him  till  you're  done,  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  suf 
fer  eth  violence,  and  the  violent  take  it  by  force"  ?  Is 
it  hippodrome  or  house-of-God  vernacularism  that 
the  performer  employs  when  he  exclaims,  ''Watch 
and  pray,  friends  ;  don't  let  the  devil  get  among  you 
on  the  sly,  before  candle-light"?  Which  humorist 
was  it  that  relates  how  on  a  certain  occasion,  in  a 
dispute  with  one  of  his  own  cloth,  he  "blowed 
this  proselyting,  sheep-stealing  preacher  to  Never, 
where  another  Baptist  preacher  that  he  once 
heard  of,  would  have  gone  if  he  had  jumped  off"  ? 
The  prayer  of  the  service  was  of  like  composi 
tion,  both  in  matter  and  manner,  with  the  sermon. 
It  was  entered  upon  calmly,  and  with  some  regard 
to  order  in  the  conception  and  delivery.  The  voice, 
19* 


222  BLACK-ROBES. 

keyed  to  a  natural  tone,  syllabled  itself  articulately 
and  deliberately,  moving  not  unstatelily  as  to  the 
Dorian  mood  of  flutes  and  soft  recorders ;  while 
the  action  was  just  and  in  appropriate  harmony 
with  the  speech.  But,  as  the  petitioner  proceeded, 
the  sober  method  soon,  and  by  rapid  develop 
ment,  began  to  manifest  symptoms  of  derangement. 
Accelerating  in  pace  and  strengthening  in  power, 
his  utterance  ran  the  ascending  intervals  of  the 
scale,  until  the  height  was  won  and  the  intensity 
reached,  beyond  which  the  capacities  of  the  organ, 
in  spite  of  superhuman  effort,  could  not  attain. 
To  sustain  the  lofty  elevation  imposed  a  hard  strain 
upon  his  energies,  but  the  ordeal  was  gallantly  met, 
and  pluckily  endured,  although  the  severity  of  the 
labor  told  with  torturing  effect  upon  the  machinery 
of  the  man.  The  veins  upon  his  neck  and  forehead 
stood  out  full  and  round,  like  cords ;  great  drops 
of  sweat  hung  on  his  brow ;  the  red  tinging  his 
cheeks  darkened  to  purple ;  his  lips  grew  livid  ; 
the  motion  of  his  jaws  churned  the  secretions  of 
their  engendering,  and  the  foam  as  it  accumulated 
oozed  clammily  out  at  the  corners  of  his  mouth, 
thence  darting  in  spumy  flecks  away  upon  the  cur 
rent  of  his  breath  over  the  heads  of  the  people,  or 
settling  back,  checked  ever  and  anon  by  long- 
drawn  inspirations  sharply  hissing  through  the 
half-closed  teeth,  into  its  proper  reservoir. 

At  such  a  pitch  of  soaring,  while  lungs  and  mus 
cles  failed  not,  it  was  possible  to  keep  sound  and 


THE  METHODIST. 


223 


fury  afloat, — but  not  with  other  ballast  than  the 
proverb  allows  them.  The  atmosphere  was  too 
thin  for  reason  to  breathe  in.  Up  in  a  balloon,  the 
scared  sense  lost  its  sanity  and  went  a-raving.  All 
was  disorder,  all  confusion.  Still,  through  the  tur 
moil  and  the  tangle,  the  busy  tongue  tripped  on ; 
saying  the  more,  more  vehemently,  the  less  it  had 
to  say ;  quoting  and  misquoting  scraps  of  Scrip 
ture  ;  addressing  the  Almighty  by  his  most  awful 
titles  in  rounds  of  endless  repetition;  vociferous 
with  exclamations;  full  of  strange  oh's  ;  and  all  with 
such  an  accompaniment  of  yells,  and  shrieks,  and 
groans,  and  "  windy  suspirations  of  forced  breath," 
and  clapping  of  hands,  and  shouts  of  glory,  as, 
almost  excusably,  to  tempt  the  uninitiated  to 
suspect  of  the  Deity  appealed  to,  that  "  either 
He  was  talking,  or  He  was  pursuing,  or  He  was 
in  a  journey,  or  peradventure  He  slept  and  must 
be  awakened." 

For  the  few  minutes  customarily  allotted  to  this 
exercise,  and  until  near  its  close,  the  style  intense 
was  kept  in  play,  all  the  while,  with  unflagging 
activity.  Suddenly,  then,  as  by  some  trick  of 
magic,  arrested  in  mid-career,  it  paused.  The  rigor 
and  tension  of  the  countenance  relaxed;  the  veiny 
currents  resumed  their  natural  flow,  the  cheeks 
and  lips  their  wonted  color.  The  storm  was  over, 
— ceased  on  the  instant;  and  out  of  the  great  calm 
that  ensued,  fallen  at  a  drop  to  the  gentle  tone  and 
attunement  of  its  opening,  briefly  the  voice  gave 


224  BLACK-ROBES. 

the  rounding  clause  to  its  orison,  and  the  prayer 
was  ended. 

The  singing  of  the  service  was,  perhaps,  its  most 
attractive  feature.  The  hymns  before  sermon  were 
generally  selections  from  the  book,  read  out  couplet 
by  couplet,  for  the  accommodation  of  the  congre 
gation,  among  whom  copies  of  the  text,  and — not  to 
put  the  case  too  pointedly — spectacles,  were  much 
wanting.  The  preacher  acted  as  his  own  clerk  and 
chorister,  choosing  for  his  "tune"  Dundee's  wild, 
warbling  strain,  or  plaintive  Martyrs,  or  some  other 
of  the  standard  chants  common  to  all  the  various 
denominations  of  the  border.  These  compositions 
were  of  too  staid  a  character  to  elicit  that  degree  of 
enthusiasm  to  which  the  Methodist  mind  was  par 
tial,  but,  nevertheless,  were  rendered  with  no  little 
spirit.  The  voices  all,  male  and  female,  sang  in 
unison.  Music  had  not  risen  to  the  dignity  of  a 
profession  in  the  wilderness  as  yet,  and  it  was  not 
to  be  expected  that  its  rules  were  to  govern  strictly 
in  the  performances.  Time,  as  an  element  in  the 
movement,  was  regulated  by  chance,  and  chance 
by  the  loudest  pair  of  lungs.  As  Stentor  led  the 
way,  the  inferior  organs  followed,  catching,  by 
quick  imitation,  his  style,  and  conforming  to  his 
paces  with  a  remarkable  felicity  of  adaptation. 

But  the  hymns  of  the  people — the  characteristic 
ones  which  reached  to  the  heart  and  provoked  the 
liveliest  response — were  those  of  native  invention, 
not  put  down  in  the  book,  and  therefore,  vastly  to 


THE  METHODIST.  22$ 

the  popular  preference,  not  necessitating  the  ser 
vices  of  the  prompter  at  the  desk.  The  compo 
sition  of  these  hymns  was  peculiar.  They  were 
characterized  by  extreme  simplicity, — not  always 
accurate,  by  any  means,  in  their  rhythmical  ar 
rangement,  but  perhaps — for  even  faults  will  have 
their  fascination — borrowing  a  feature  of  attraction 
from  that  very  fact.  As  to  their  probable  origin, — 
if,  in  the  pursuit  of  his  solitary  route,  the  circuit- 
rider  should  at  any  time  have  had  his  attention 
arrested,  while  passing  near  some  corn-field  in  a 
clearing,  by  a  sound  of  voices  singing,  in  plaintive 
remembrance  of  former  times  and  scenes,  to  the 
play  of  hoes  among  the  growing  stalks, — 

"  Whar,  oh,  whar  is  my  good  ole  fader, 
Whar,  oh,  whar  is  my  good  ole  fader, 
Whar,  oh,  whar  is  my  good  ole  fader?  ' 
'Way  down  in  de  Car'lina  State. 

By-an'-by  we  do  hope  to  meet  'im, 
By-an'-by  we  do  hope  to  meet  Mm, 
By-an'-by  we  do  hope  to  meet  'im, 
'Way  down  in  de  Car'lina  State," — 

nothing  could  be  more  natural  than  that,  struck 
alike  by  the  pleasing  mood  of  the  melody  and  the 
simple  art  of  the  stanzas,  he  should  have  thought 
of  the  fine  adaptability  of  both,  with  certain  easy 
and  obvious  modifications  of  sentiment  in  the  latter, 
for  devotional  purposes.  His  next  appointment 
sees  the  experiment  made.  It  proves  a  success ; 
and  the  secular  ditty,  converted  so  as  to  read, 


226  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

"  Where,  oh,  where,  now,  is  good  old  Isaac,"  or 
"Jacob,"  or "  Elijah,"  or  "the  Hebrew  Children,"  or 
any  other  saintly  nominee,  with  the  refrain  spiritual 
ized  into,  "  Away  down  in  the  Promised  Land," 
has  its  new,  gospel  destiny, — and  will  keep  it,  to 
animate  the  ardor  and  gladden  the  hearts  of  wor 
shipers,  for  many  and  many  a  year  to  come. 

Upon  such  terms  of  construction  it  was  not  diffi 
cult  to  frame  verses.  Melodies,  as  involving  the 
exercise  of  invention,  were  the  main  want, — a  want, 
however,  conveniently  satisfied,  when  it  was  dis 
covered  that  a  change  of  art  was  as  possible  as 
a  change  of  heart,  and  that  profane  music  could 
be  brought  under  sanctifying  influence  as  well  as 
ungodly  minds.  Soon,  therefore,  this  source  of 
supply  laid  under  contribution,  quite  a  collection 
of  airs  was  amassed ;  sufficient  to  keep  up  the  due 
proportion  of  praise  through  the  closing  devotional 
services,  let  the  interest  of  the  occasion  protract 
them  as  it  might.  Of  these  melodies,  some  con 
tinue,  not  unworthily,  to  hold  a  place,  even  as  yet, 
in  the  local  popular  favor.  If  discarded  almost  en 
tirely  from  the  camp,  for  instance,  that  plaintive 
air  is  not  <.  forgotten  thing  of  beauty  in  the  cot 
tages  that  dot  the  scenes  of  its  ancient  popularity, 
which  there  are  those  who  will  readily  recall  in 
association  with  the  lines, — 

"  There  is  rest  for  the  weary, 

There  is  rest  for  the  weary, 

There  is  rest  for  the  weary, 

And  we'll  rest  there  too  : 


THE  METHODIST. 


227 


On  the  other  side  of  Jordan, 
In  the  sweet  fields  of  Eden, 
Where  the  tree  of  life  is  blooming, 
And  we'll  rest  there  too." 

Others  there  are  which  are  almost  lost,  lingering 
only  in  the  recollection  of  the  few  here  and  there 
of  a  fast-wasting  generation  who,  as  children,  sat 
and  in  still  wonder  listened  and  learned,  as,  at  the 
gatherings  in  the  groves,  their  fathers  and  mothers 
sang  them  long  ago, — like  this,  caught  one  day, 
and  made  a  note  of,  as  it  fell  quaveringly  from  the 
lips — not  reluctant  to  gratify  a  curious  hearer — of 
one  of  their  number: 


Ye        sis-ters  in   the  Lord,  Come  rise  and  go  with  me,    And 


i*E??=r3 


leave     this       sin  -    ful     world,      And  "    all       things      be  -  low 

£±==i=gL^__ 


^ 


Come  learn  to  watch  and  pray,  As  ye     journey  on  the  way,  And  you'll 


I  I 


X  k     P          -p f      p    1 

BE        =^=9=       3! 


soon         climb    the     banks         of       Cal  va  ry. 

This  hymn  was  particularly  designed  for  the  altar, 
or  "  Glory  Pen,"  and   could  be  continued  ad  libi- 


228  BLACK-ROBES. 

tit  in  by  the  simple  substitution  of  "brothers,"  or 
"fathers,"  or  "mothers,"  or  what  not,  for  "sisters" 
in  the  first  line.  While  it  was  being  sung,  the  custom 
was  for  the  preachers  and  leaders  to  move  freely 
about  within  the  inclosure,  exchanging  greetings 
among  themselves  and  shaking  hands  with  the 
"mourners." 

The  music,  that  is  the  own  peculiar  music  of 
the  Methodist,  was  always  spirited.  Sentiment  was 
not  fastidious  as  to  its  style  of  conveyance,  save  in 
this  respect  only, — it  never  chose  a  slow  coach. 
Grave  or  light,  sombre  or  joyous,  the  airy-paced 
vehicle  was  the  one  for  its  burden.  The  "  minor" 
airs  in  use  to  a  limited  extent,  such  as  the  one 
usually  sung  to  "When  I  can  read  my  title  clear," 
with  the  accompanying  chorus  of  "  Oh,  the  Lamb, 
the  loving  Lamb,  the  Lamb  of  Calvary,"  etc., 
formed  no  exception  to  the  rule.  Expression  de 
pended  upon  degrees  of  intensity — the  piano  and 
the  forte — rather  than  upon  variety  in  mode,  for 
effect.  The  worshiping  assembly  was  a  great 
organ,  as  it  were,  many-piped,  yet  with  but  one 
stop, — the  swell  besides,  and  the  bellows.  Never 
theless  the  instrument  was  capable  of  wonderful 
diversity  in  its  emotional  range  and  force.  Who 
ever  may  have  had  the  opportunity  of  hearing, 
long  ago,  the  famous  old  revival  hymn,  will  well 
remember  with  what  a  dread-inspiring  power  the 
opening  verse  (and  others  succeeding  of  like  dole 
ful  tenor)  fell  upon  his  ears: 


THE  METHODIST.  229 

"  Oh,  there  will  be  mourning,  mourning,  mourning,  mourning, 
Oh,  there  will  be  mourning  at  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ! 
Brothers  and  sisters  there  will  part,  [twice  repeated,] 
Will  part  to  meet  no  more !" 

and  how  sudden  and  complete, — how  thrilling 
and  rapturous,  the  changed  experience,  as  the 
chorus  of  voices,  true  still  to  time  and  tune,  but 
bursting  into  a  tone  of  vehement  intensity  like  that 
which  gives  noise  to  the  huzza,  of  an  army  at  the 
moment  of  victory,  rung  to  the  significance  of  the 
closing  stanza: 

"Oh,  there  will  be  shouting,  shouting,  shouting,  shouting, 
Oh,  there  will  be  shouting  at  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ! 
Saints  and  angels  there  will  meet,  [repeated  as  before,] 
Will  meet  to  part  no  m  re  !" 

The  closing  refrain  of  one  or  another  of  the 
hymns  of  this  class  brought  the  worship  to  an  end. 
The  preacher  arose  in  his  place,  lifted  his  hands, 
pronounced  the  benediction,  and  his  duties  were 
done.  Soberly  the  people  deserted  their  seats,  and 
calmly,  as  though  the  storm  through  which  they 
were  just  passed  had  never  been,  withdrew  from 
the  house  and  retired  to  their  homes. 


20 


230  BLACK-ROBES. 

IV. 
IN    THE    SADDLE   AND   ON   THE   CIRCUIT. 


Methodist  Black-Robe  had  his  local  fields 
X  of  labor,  but  the  sphere  more  peculiarly  pro 
fessional  to  him  was  of  wider  embrace,  reaching 
in  grand  range  over  miles  of  territory,  from  station 
to  station  in  which  he  journeyed,  making  his  stages 
and  his  stoppages  according  to  schedule  previously 
timed,  and  completing  the  round  in  a  month  or 
months,  to  resume  and  pursue  it  over  and  over 
again  as  often  as  was  practicable  during  the  term 
of  his  appointment.  The  newer  circuits  —  those 
extending  into  the  thinly  populated  districts  of 
the  remoter  frontier,  where  the  preacher  ran  the 
risk  of  passing  a  night  once  in  awhile  without  the 
shelter  of  a  roof  —  constituted  the  "  Missionary" 
ground  of  the  church.  Ample  arrangements  were 
made,  in  such  a  case,  for  the  comfortable  protection 
of  the  "itinerant"  against  the  roughnesses  and  pri 
vations  to  which  he  might  be  exposed  by  the  way. 
Besides  the  Arab  steed  for  his  own  riding,  of  which 
he  wa£  justly  proud,  he  started  out  provided  with 
a  pack-horse  to  carry  the  few  stores  that  were 
needed  for  his  frugal  sustenance,  at  such  times  as 
he  might  be  compelled  to  camp  it  and  do  his  own 
cooking  on  the  route.  These  stores  consisted  of 


THE  METHODIST.  231 

ground  coffee,  parched  corn  run  through  a  mill 
and  mixed  with  sugar,  beef-tongues,  cold  meats, 
and  sea-biscuits;  a  coffee-pot,  britannia  tumblers 
and  spoons,  steel  knives,  wooden  forks,  and,  to 
complete  the  whole,  a  water-proof  linen  tent,  large 
enough,  if  necessary,  to  accommodate  nine  men 
conveniently.  But  the  missionary  had  counted 
the  cost  of  his  office  before  assuming  its  responsi 
bilities,  so  that,  although  he  may  have  had  reason 
to  groan  under  crosses,  to  lament  over  hard  lodg 
ing,  and  to  complain  of  picnic  provender,  yet  did 
he  find  grace  sufficient  to  meet  each  tribulation  as 
it  came,  and  bravely  to  worry  it  through. 

Once  he  was  under  the  necessity  of  spending  a 
night  in  the  log  cabin  of  a  backwoodsman  on  the 
far  border.  His  experience  on  the  occasion  is  cir 
cumstantially  sketched,  by  his  own  hand,  in  illus 
tration  of  the  dire  extremities  to  which  the  pioneer 
preachers  were  driven,  now  and  then,  in  the  prose 
cution  of  their  work.  There  was  no  floor  in  the 
house,  the  bare  ground,  leveled  off  and  smoothed 
down,  being  made  to  answer  instead.  Hickory 
poles  were  laid  across  at  the  angles  of  the  -roof 
where  it  rested  upon  the  walls,  to  serve  as  joists, 
which  with  an  over-spread  of  clapboards  formed 
the  upper  floor.  The  house  had  neither  bedstead, 
chair,  nor  table.  To  supply  the  want  of  the  first- 
mentioned  article  of  furniture,  for  his  own  and  his 
wife's  accommodation,  forked  sticks  had  bee:i 
driven  into  the  ground  at  one  corner  of  the  cabin 


232  BLACK-ROBES. 

as  supports  for  poles,  across  which  clapboards 
were  laid,  and  these  "covered  with  some  bedding, 
such  as  it  was."  The  little  negro  boy  of  the  estab 
lishment  slept,  wrapt  in  a  deer-skin,  on  the  ground. 
So  did  the  missionary,  between  two  blankets,  with 
his  saddle-bags  for  a  pillow.  "Surrounded  by 
these  gloomy  circumstances,"  he  "felt  rather  mel 
ancholy,"  and  his  mind  began  to  run  back  to 
former  days  of  "ease  and  plenty"  (he  had  been 
raised,  according  to  a  previous  chapter  of  his  auto 
biography,  in  a  "log  cabin,"  with  "no  floor"  to  it, 
and  the  "wolves  howling  around  it  at  night");  but 
when  he  thought  within  himself  that  he  was  better 
off  than  his  Saviour  was,  for  He  "had  not  where 
to  lay  his  head,"  he  became  more  contented,  and 
had  a  tolerably  comfortable  night  of  it.  He  made 
his  breakfast,  on  a  board  bench,  of  corn-bread  and 
milk, — no  spoons.  One  can  scarcely  refrain  from 
wondering,  with  some  view  as  to  whom  the  sym 
pathy  should  apply,  if  so  miserable  was  the  ex 
perience  to  the  preacher  for  a  night,  what  must  it 
have  been  to  the  parishioner  as  the  habit,  without 
change  or  relief,  of  his  life  ? 

In  his  more  customary  ridings,  however,  the 
itinerant  was  not  liable  to  risks  of  inconvenience, 
nor  under  the  necessity  of  providing  against  the 
contingencies  of  a  ground-floor,  corn-bread  and 
milk,  and — no  spoons.  A  pair  of  saddle-bags, 
packed  with  his  little  all  requisite  of  linen  and 
library,  was  his  only  equipage.  Good  houses, 


THE  METHODIST. 


233 


public  and  private,  were  not  so  few  or  far  between 
along  the  way  but  that  the  hospitalities  of  one  or 
the  other  could  be  claimed,  at  noontide  for  dinner, 
or  for  bed  and  board,  wherever  overtaken  by  its 
approach,  at  night.  Householder  and  hostler,  saint 
and  son  of  Belial,  with  the  courtesy  characteristic 
of  all  classes  alike,  received  him  at  his  coming, 
and  civilly  entertained  him;  even  the  publican 
rarely  demanding,  and  less  often  receiving,  a  fee 
for  the  accommodation.  The  attention  which  was 
at  first  viewed  rather  in  the  light  of  a  charity  by 
the  host,  soon  came  to  be  regarded  as  a  due  by 
the  customer,  who,  in  the  end,  established  a  habit 
of  claiming  what  he  desired  with  an  independence 
that  was  imposing  to  behold.  Was  not  the  laborer 
worthy  of  his  hire  ? 

And  it  was  paid  liberally.  In  the  private  estab 
lishment  its  choicest  resources  were  offered  for 
his  distinguished  delectation.  Closet  and  pantry 
were  distrained  of  their  rarest  delicacies,  and  the 
poultry-yard  of  its  fattest  broodlings,  to  furnish 
a  palatable  variety  for  his  table.  The  air  and 
the  exercise  of  the  road  wefe  favorable  to  diges 
tion;  they  stimulated  healthily  the  inner  man  of 
the  reverend  traveler,  and  bred  an  appetite  the 
consumptive  capacity  of  which  got  to  be  so  gen 
erally  understood  and  appreciated  as  to  become 
proverbial.  He  relished  a  turkey,  and  yet  objected 
to  it  (or  his  own  people  have  persistently  slandered 
him)  that  while  it  was,  perhaps,  a  little  too  much, 
20* 


234  BLACK-ROBES. 

as  a  rqast,  for  one,  it  was  certainly  not  enough  for 
two.  At  the  inn,  where  discrimination  among 
guests,  eating  unavoidably  at  the  same  board,  could 
not  well  be  made,  he  had  to  forego  the  privilege 
of  preferred  meats,  and  fare  like  the  rest  of  its 
patrons;  but  a  "square  meal"  could  always  be  de 
pended  upon ;  for  there  was  no  stint  of  provision 
ever  to  complain  of  as  tables  stood  among  the 
taverns  of  those  times. 

His  personal  wants  having  been  satisfied,  the 
foremost  business  afterwards  of  the  Black-Robe 
was  to  make  the  accident  of  his  presence  an  agree 
able  and  professionally  profitable  one  to  his  enter 
tainer.  Perhaps  his  host  of  the  private  lodge  was 
a  hunter,  the  warm  side  of  whose  heart  he  intui 
tively  knew  was  to  be  approached  through  his 
rifle,  like  the  Arkansas  squatter's,  of  legendary 
renown,  through  his  fiddle.  To  prove  his  skill  at 
the  craft,  he  would  propose  a  mark  and  a  crack  at 
a  hundred  yards,  beat  the  woodman,  of  course, 
over  and  over  again,  and  then,  commending  the 
gun  and  complimenting  the  owner,  would  follow 
up  the  last  fire  with  a  few  practical  observations  on 
the  subject  of  religion.  If  the  hunter's  sound  con 
version  did  not  occur  on  the  spot,  another  round 
of  shot,  had  next  "  riding"  of  the  circuit,  was  never 
known  to  fail. 

Nor  did  he  any  the  less  dutifully  neglect  his 
mission  at  the  tavern.  Whatever  the  chances  or 
the  circumstances  attending  his  stay,  in  season  or 


THE  METHODIST. 


235 


out  of  season,  he  would  find,  or  make,  an  oppor 
tunity  for  discovering  himself  in  his  ministerial 
character.  Probably,  on  entering  the  house  of  an 
evening,  he  would  find  the  young  people  of  the 
neighborhood  assembled,  a  fiddler  at  play,  and 
couples  arranging  themselves  for  a  dance.  A 
"beautiful,  ruddy  young  lady"  would  walk  very 
gracefully  up  to  him,  dropping  a  handsome  cour 
tesy,  and  pleasantly,  with  winning  smiles,  invite 
him  out  to  the  floor.  He  would  rise  "as  gracefully 
as  he  could,"  move  to  the  beautiful  lady's  left  side, 
and  grasp  her  right  hand  with  his,  while  with  her  left 
wrist  she  would  lean  on  his  arm.  In  this  manner 
they  would  walk  to  their  position.  The  whole 
company  would  seem  pleased  "at  this  act  of  polite 
ness  in  the  beautiful  young  lady  shown  to  the 
stranger."  The  negro  fiddler  would  begin  to  put 
his  fiddle  in  the  best  order.  The  preacher  would 
then  tell  the  fiddler  to  hold  a  minute,  and  would 
go  on  to  say  that  for  several  years  he  had  not  under 
taken  any  matter  of  importance  without  first  asking 
the  blessing  of  God  upon  it,  and  he  now  desired  to 
ask  the  blessing  of  God  on  the  beautiful  young 
lady  and  the  company  who  had  shown  so  much 
politeness  to  a  stranger.  Here  he  would  grasp  the 
beautiful  young  lady's  hand  and  say,  "Let  us  all 
kneel  down  and  pray;"  and  then  instantly  drop 
on  his  knees  and  commence  praying  with  all  the 
power  of  "soul  and  body"  that  he  could  command. 
The  beautiful  young  lady  would  try  to  get  loose 


236  BLACK-ROBES. 

from  him,  but  he  would  hold  her  tight.  The 
company  would  look  curious.  The  fiddler  would 
run  for  the  kitchen,  exclaiming,  "  Lord  a  marcy, 
what  de  matter?  What  dat  mean?"  The  prayer 
would  be  followed  by  singing,  the  singing  by  ex 
hortation,  and  the  whole,  kept  up  for  hours,  would 
result  in  the  "  powerful  conversion"  of  the  beautiful 
young  lady  and  fourteen  others, — all  before  break 
fast-time  next  morning. 

But  the  circuit-rider  did  not  confine  himself  to 
occasional  opportunities,  such  as  these,  for  doing 
good.  Indeed,  they  were  merely  incidental  to  the 
main  business;  sowing  seed  by  the  wayside,  as  it 
were,  on  the  tramp  between  fields  surveyed  and 
located  for  particular  tilling.  His  regular  stations 
were  chosen  at  convenient  intervals  along  the 
route,  ordinarily  an  easy  day's  journey  apart,  so 
that  not  unfrequently  every  evening  of  the  week 
had  its  appointment  for  preaching.  He  was  not 
particular  in  his  choice  of  accommodation  for  this 
purpose.  The  best  that  offered  was  thankfully 
taken  and  put  to  use, — private  dwellings,  bar 
rooms,  tavern-porches,  court-houses,  barns,  sheds, 
wagons  even,  and  as  a  yet  other  alternative,  the 
woods  out-of-doors;  any  spot,  anywhere;  for  the 
Black-Robe  felt  that  when  duty  called  he  must 
obey  at  all  hazards.  "As  the  gospel  was  to  be 
preached  to  every  creature,  his  mission  extended 
to  every  place  this  side  of  hell."  Happily  for  the 
cause,  Providence  so  ordered  it  that  the  least  hos- 


THE  METHODIST.  237 

pitable  shift  should  prove  the  most  desirable. 
Under  the  trees  became  the  favorite  assembly- 
room.  The  people  were  attracted  to  it  at  first 
by  the  novelty  of  the  thing;  then  because  of  the 
excellent  adaptation,  as  they  soon  found,  of  the 
forest,  with  its  grand  appointments, — its  arches 
and  columns,  its  naves  and  transepts,  and  its  dim 
religious  light,  so  impressive  of  effect, — for  a  sanc 
tuary.  True,  the  choice  might  seem  to  imply  that 
the  prejudice  was  not  well  founded  which,  with  the 
ceremonies  of  the  Catholic  Church,  had  led  the  dis 
senter  to  abjure  its  cathedrals,  and  to  reckon  respect 
for  the  Beautiful  as  among  the  deadly  heresies;  but 
one  was  the  handicraft  of  the  Master  Architect, — 
the  other  was  apprentice-work;  the  original,  as  of 
God,  might  be  admirable,  but  did  it  follow  that 
the  imitation,  of  carnal  device,  was  not  damnable? 

As  these  open-air  gatherings  were  seen  to  be 
popular ;  as  hearers  in  still  multiplying  numbers 
continued  to  flock  in,  and  as  sinners  began  to  show 
lively  signs  of  awakening,  it  was  thought  expedient, 
the  better  to  afford  space  for  conversion  to  work  its 
perfect  work,  that  the  meetings  should  be  protracted 
beyond  the  limit  of  a  single  night.  Hence  arose 
that  institution  peculiar  to  the  sect  and  to  the  sec 
tion,  —the  CAMP-MEETING. 

This  spiritual  saturnalia,  occurring  statedly  and 
running  through  a  week  or  a  fortnight,  was  called 
(in  its  grand  annual  observance,  for  it  also  had  its 
"  quarterly")  late  in  the  summer-time,  or  early  in 


238  BLACK-ROBES. 

the  autumn,  after  the  harvests  had  been  gathered 
and  before  the  setting-in  of  seed-time,  the  season 
for  out-of-doors  at  this  period  being  propitious, 
and  the  agricultural  population  then  enjoying  their 
chief  term  of  leisure.  For  the  scene  of  its  orgies, 
a  space  large  enough  for  the  purpose  was  selected 
from  some  romantic  nook  of  woods,  thinned,  if 
necessary,  of  its  trees  and  cleared  of  whatever 
debris  might  encumber  the  ground.  Around  this 
area  the  believers  pitched  their  tents, — of  canvas 
it  might  be  or  of  bark,  or  having  their  wagons 
backed  into  place  in  lieu  of  either,  the  whole  some 
times  fenced  about  with  a  barricade  of  bushes,  to 
keep  out  the  allies  of  their  adversary  the  devil. 
At  each  corner  of  the  inclosure  a  sort  of  rude  altar 
built  of  logs,  unless  the  large  stump  of  a  tree  might 
be  had  as  a  substitute,  was  erected,  upon  which 
fires  were  kindled  to  illumine  the  darkness  and 
keep  off  the  mosquitoes.  Lamps  also  were  hung 
out  at  the  tent-fronts  and  suspended  from  the 
branches  of  the  trees.  A  platform  was  built  at  one 
side  of  the  area,  with  a  plank  placed  bench-high 
along  its  rear  for  a  seat,  and  another  elevated  at 
the  front,  designed  to  serve  as  a  breastwork  for  the 
preacher  and  a  place  of  deposit  for  his  "  library." 
Under  the  platform  a  plot  of  ground  was  railed  in 
for  the  exclusive  use  of  mourners,  and  was  known 
as  the  Altar,  or  Glory  Pen.  Back  of  this,  seats — 
boards,  that  is,  resting  at  either  end  on  billets  of 
wood  or  stones — were  ranged  for  the  accommoda- 


THE  METHODIST. 


239 


lion  of  all  who  chose  to  occupy  them  during  ser 
vice.  Rules  for  the  preservation  of  order  in  the 
camp  were  posted  up  conspicuously  in  the  imme 
diate  neighborhood,  as  well  as  on  the  fences  and 
trees  along  the  different  roads  leading  to  the 
ground,  in  case  of  a  violation  of  which  the  execu 
tive  committee  was  never  wanting — the  Black- 
Robe  himself  its  most  efficient  member — to  see  to 
the  sufficient  chastisement  of  the  aggressor. 

Outside  the  tents  the  woods  were  filled  round 
and  about,  wherever  vacant  space  could  be  found, 
with  wagons,  carts,  bales  of  hay,  broken  boxes, 
and  other  promiscuous  litter,  only  room  enough 
being  reserved  besides — not  taking  into  account 
the  ways  opened,  and  with  diligent  care  kept 
open,  for  access  to,  and  egress  from,  the  camp — for 
the  accommodation  of  the  horses  of  attendants ; 
with  here  and  there,  in  by-places,  a  booth,  a  bar 
between  two  trees;  and  a  bush-tent.  The  border- 
man  had  his  ruling  passions:  he  loved  his  liquor; 
he  was  choice  in  his  breed  of  colts,  and — alas !  men 
are  weak,  and  women  are  willing,  and  both  will 
err,  in  the  bush  as  well  as  on  Broadway.  Within 
this  precinct,  of  purer  promise  surely,  the  vender 
of  beverages  had  fixed  his  place,  and  whisky 
was  dispensed  to  those  that  thirsted  among  the 
congregation,  freely  and  openly:  here,  too,  was 
quartered  the  proprietor — with  his  property — of 
that  elegant,  full-blooded,  eight-year-old  Arabian, 
whose  portrait  and  pedigree,  in  printer's  ink,  con- 


240  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

fronted  the  gaze  on  every  walk  and  at  every  turn, 
publicly  placarded  on  the  same  oak  or  hickory, 
likely,  with  the  Rules  of  the  Meeting,  and  whose 
rampant  self,  jauntily  bedecked  with  ribbons  and 
rosettes,  and  tightly  postured  with  belt  and  bridle, 
was  daily  led  out  before  interested  groups  of  be 
holders,  for  parade,  and  other  purposes  ;  and  here 
the  unreclaimed  Magdalen  made  her  haunt,  in 
the  twilight,  and  in  the  evening,  and  in  the  black 
and  dark  night,  mingling  among  the  strollers  of 
the  hour,  displaying  her  charms,  and  with  fair 
speech  and  flattering  lips  tempting  whom  she 
might,  and,  under  the  very  nose  of  the  executive 
committee,  leading  her  captive  down  to  the  cham 
ber  of  death. 

Meetings  in  the  camp  were  held  morning,  after 
noon,  and  night,  to  which  the  people  were  sum 
moned  with  the  blowing  of  a  trumpet,  or  rather 
of  a  tin  horn.  The  daylight  sessions  were,  com 
paratively  speaking,  tame  affairs.  Grace,  as  it  was 
found  among  the  tents,  did  not  seem  to  flourish  in 
the  sun.  Like  the  sorrowful  tree  or  the  Indian 
isle,  it  bloomed  only  in  the  night,  too  delicate  and 
phantomy  to  abide  the  test  of  a  more  searching 
exposure.  The  opening  exercises  were  undemon 
strative.  With  the  advancing  hour  interest  height 
ened — the  fervors  of  devotion,  like  the  glow  of  the 
fireflies,  showing  brighter  and  brighter  as  thick 
ened  the  dark — until,  night  fairly  set  in,  illumination 
was  at  its  height  and  enthusiasm  at  its  liveliest 


THE  METHODIST.  241 

To  hasten  this  moment  of  blissful  realization  was 
the  foremost  aim,  always,  of  the  exhorter.  His 
plans  (for  he  had  his  plans)  were  all  laid  with  a  view 
to  it. 

"  Brother,"  he  would  say,  aside,  to  his  assisting 
preacher,  "  have  you  any  faith  ?" 

"  Some,"  the  assistant  would  respond. 

"  And  so  have  I ;  a  little.  Now,  I  am  to  preach 
first.  If  I  strike  fire,  I  will  immediately  call  for 
mourners,  and  you  must  go  in  and  exhort  in  every 
direction,  and  I  will  manage  the  altar.  But  if  I 
fail  to  strike  fire,  you  must  preach;  and  if  you  strike 
fire,  call  the  mourners  and  manage  the  altar.  I 
meanwhile  will  go  through  the  congregation  and 
exhort  with  all  the  power  God  gives  me." 

Doing  his  part  in  carrying  out  the  scheme,  the 
first  brother  (who  doesn't  relate  the  circumstance) 
might  fall  short,  except  perhaps  in  producing  a 
few  promising  sparks,  but  the  second  (who  tells 
the  story)  is  more  successful, — strikes  fire  that 
catches,  flames,  blazes,  spreads,  and  wraps  the 
camp  in  a  general  conflagration.  His  eloquence 
is  irresistible.  Careless  hearers  become  attentive 
and  concerned ;  sinners,  conscience-smitten,  grow 
pale  and  tremulous  with  terror ;  sons  of  Belial  fall 
to  the  ground  in  an  agony  of  awakening ;  and  even 
the  Baptists,  who  would  seem  to  be  the  most  in 
corrigible  among  the  unrighteous,  are  startled  by 
conviction,  and  begin  to  cry  out,  "  Oh,  pray  for  us, 
or  we  are  lost  and  damned  forever !" 

21 


242  BLACK-ROBES. 

The  work,  once  under  headway,  advances  with 
astonishing  progress.  If  the  spiritual  frame  were 
liable  to  like  infirmities  with  the  physical,  the  in 
ference  would  seem  natural  and  reasonable  that 
some  colicky  distemper  of  soul  had  suddenly 
broken  out,  racking  the  patient  with  ache  and 
pang  and  spasm,  and  that,  after  all,  the  conclu 
sions  of  Wangomen  the  Delaware  were  not  wholly 
whimsical,  nor  jalap  and  ipecac  to  be  despised  as 
a  physic  for  the  disorder.  Men — steady  veterans 
of  the  border,  who  had  wrestled  with  bears  in  their 
day,  and  could  have  bearded  lions  in  their  dens 
without  an  emotion — are  seized  with  the  weakness 
and  quake  and  quail  under  its  influence.  Example 
breeds  example :  victim  after  victim  is  attacked, 
and  the  distemper  becomes  general  and  rages  un- 
controlledly.  Bodies  writhe  and  strive  as  in  the 
throes  of  convulsion ;  arms  fling  wildly  in  the  air; 
down  on  his  knees  the  infected  subject  falls  in 
attitude  of  prayer,  his  head  forced  back  upon  its 
column  of  support,  until  the  tight  cordage  of  the 
neck  seems  ready  to  crack  under  the  strain;  faces, 
picturing,  in  sharp  relief,  each  one  its  own  pecu 
liar  presentment  of  the  passion  at  play  within,  look 
fixedly  up  and  staringly,  through  dry,  hot,  blood 
shot  eyes,  towards  heaven ;  hair,  tossed  and  tangled, 
stands  all  affright  on  end,  or,  broken  loose  from  its 
folds,  on  the  part  of  the  women,  streams  in  dishev 
eled  tresses  to  the  earth,  and  is  trampled,  trailing 
in  the  dust,  under  feet  of  the  shifting  multitude. 


THE  METHODIST.  243 

Convicts  foam  at  the  mouth,  gnash  their  teeth,  and 
gasp  like  drowning  or  dying  ones  for  breath ;  or 
with  less  frenzied  demonstration,  swaying  their 
bodies  to  and  fro  the  while,  now  wring  their  hands, 
now  clap  them, — clap  them  with  a  will,  the  sharp 
concussion  producing  reports  like  pistol-shots. 
Sighs  and  sobs  distress  the  air.  Groanings  and 
meanings,  wails,  and  shrieks,  and  howls,  and 
shouts  of  anguish,  fear,  despair,  exultation,  burst 
ing  full  vent  from  a  hundred — a  thousand — thrice 
a  thousand  throats,  rise,  and  rolling  in  tumultuous 
tide,  away  and  away,  flood  the  solitudes  with  a 
torrent  of  uproar.  The  horses  at  their  troughs  in 
the  woods  pause  over  their  oats,  and,  pricking  their 
ears,  stand  still-bound  in  listening  wonder;  the 
trader  in  Bourbon,  confounded,  suspends  his  traffic; 
while  they  of  the  Scarlet  Letter,  the  fair  unfortunate, 
shuddering  as  they  hear,  to  shun  the  notice  which 
they  just  now  courted,  steal  shrinkingly  aside  and 
hide  them  in  the  dark. 

Meanwhile  the  preacher,  having  wrought  his 
material  up  to  the  proper  pitch  of  frenzy,  changes 
his  base  of  operations  from  the  pulpit  to  the  Glory 
Pen,  crowded  now  to  its  utmost  capacity  with 
seekers  and  mourners.  He  is  still  in  the  fire 
works  line,  but,  instead  of  throwing  his  matches 
promiscuously  at  the  heads  of  hearers,  as  from  his 
former  position,  he  singles  out  his  subjects  and 
applies  to  each  one  separately  his  own  particular 
lucifer.  There  is  a  distiller  of  the  name  of  H . 


BLA  CK-R  OSES. 


say,  in  the  crowd,  —  a  green-timbered  fellow,  coarse 
in  the  fibre  and  full  of  the  sap  of  sin,  whom  he 
takes  hold  of.  He  is  an  uninflammable  customer, 
hard  to  heat,  but  finally  warms  by  friction,  ignites, 
and  is  brought  under  in  a  blaze  of  blue  light. 
The  exhorter  announces  the  victory  with  a  shout, 
"  Glory  to  God  !  H  -  is  down  !  H  -  is  down  ! 
Glory  to  God!"  A  Frenchman  who  had  fought 
under  Napoleon,  next  operated  upon,  perhaps,  takes 
spark  more  promptly,  and  exclaiming,  as  he  surren 
ders,  true  to  his  soldierly  training,  "  Vive  £  Empereur 
Jesus!"  is  off  like  a  rocket,  —  "  a  case  of  conversion 
so  clear  and  powerful  that  infidelity  itself  is  abashed 
and  confounded."  A  practical  joker  of  the  Belial 
family,  who  has  come  with  a  batch  of  frogs  strung 
together  to  slip  over  the  head  of  the  exhorter  while 
stooping  and  praying  for  the  mourners,  is  then  en 
countered,  maybe  ;  finds  to  his  astonishment  that 
he  is  made  a  Chinese  cracker  of,  and  explodes 
ere  well  aware  of  it,  while  waiting  an  opportunity 
for  his  proposed  diversion.  Among  the  women 
success  is  easier  than  with  the  men,  and  more  cer 
tain  :  they  seldom  miss  fire,  but*  kindling  readily, 
flare  up  and  go  off  gloriously,  coruscating  in  well- 
sustained  style,  like  Roman  candles.  It  is  a  sin 
gular  circumstance,  which  lookers-on  are  not  slow 
to  notice,  that  the  cases  calling  for  much  the 
greater  share  of  attention  are  from  among  the 
ladies  ;  that  the  handsomest  girls  are  always  the 
wickedest  ;  have  to  be  approached  the  nearest  ; 


THE  METHODIST.  24$ 

need  the  closest  exhorting  ;  must  be  entreated  the 
most  lovingly,  and  are  the  most  apt  to  give  way 
physically;  to  faint — and  to  fall  as  seems  inevitable 
generally,  except  as  the  ministerial  arm  with 
round  embrace  interposes  to  prevent  the  catas 
trophe;  Bishop  Asbury  expresses  his  fear  some 
where  "  that  the  women  and  the  devil  will  get  all 
his  preachers." 

When  not  engaged  in  what  may  be  styled  con 
fidential  conferences,  or  private  ministries  exer 
cised  in  exclusive  behalf  of  individuals,  the  preacher 
moves  about,  picking  a  passage  with  careful  steps, 
among  the  mourners,  and  casts  his  exhortations, 
as  he  goes,  in  sententious  discharges,  right  and 
left  among  them.  "Don't  be  composed,"  he  says 
to  one  of  the  kneelers,  who  scarcely  seems  to  need 
the  admonition, — "  don't  be  composed,  but  pray  on, 
brother;  pray  on;  there's  no  composure  in  hell  or 
damnation."  Another  is  blandly  smiled  upon,  and 
encouraged  with  gratifying  assurances  that  he  is 
clearly  on  the  highway  to  glory,  the  convincing  evi 
dence  of  which  is,  that  bobbing  up  and  down  on  his 
knees,  and  going  through  the  motions  of  washing  his 
hands  in  the  air,  he  gives  shout  to  the  original,  ex 
pressive,  and  highly  devotional  sentiment  of  "  Hell ! 
hell !  hell !  hell !"  The  "  fine,  beautiful  "  daughter 
of  a  father  almost  irredeemably  lost,  as  she  is 
taught  to  believe,  in  Presbyterianism,  is  assured, 
when  she  affectionately  suggests  him  as  a  subject 
of  exhortation,  that  his  case,  though  critical  in  the 
21* 


246  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

extreme,  is  not  absolutely  hopeless, — the  vilest  Cal- 
vinist  may  return  :  "  Pray  on,"  he  says,  "  and  the 
work  will  be  done.  It  is  not  the  old  big  devil  that 
is  in  your  father,  but  a  little,  weakly,  sickly  devil, 
and  it  won't  be  a  hard  job  to  cast  him  out.  If  God 
takes  hold  of  your  father  and  shakes  him  over  hell 
a  little  while,  and  he  smells  brimstone  right  strong, 
if  there  was  a  ship-load  of  these  little,  sickly  devils 
in  him,  they  would  be  driven  out  just  as  easy  as 
a  tornado  would  drive  a  regiment  of  mosquitoes 
from  a  stagnant  pond."  "Sister,"  he  inquires,  cheer 
fully,  of  a  young  woman,  "have  you  found  your 
ransom  yet  ?"  The  sister  is  surprised  to  learn  that 
her  engagement  with  Mr.  Ransom,  which  she  had 
supposed  to  be  entirely  a  secret  between  that  gen 
tleman  and  herself,  is  known  to  the  itinerant,  but 
does  not  deny  the  situation,  and  blushingly  re 
sponds  that  she  is  looking  for  him  back  next 

Friday  evening.     "  And  Brother  G ,"  he  goes 

on  to  query  of  a  next  "  exercised"  subject,  "  how 
do  you  feel  in  the  spirit  to-night  ?"  "Bully!"  says 

Brother  G . 

To  heat  the  blood  of  his  subjects  up  to  the  grace- 
enabling  mark — 173°  of  the  spiritual  Fahrenheit 
— was  what  the  profane  would  call  the  "dodge" 
always  of  the  exhorter.  He  seemed  to  act  upon  the 
presumption  that  souls  feverishly  sin -sick  must 
be  made  Mightily  worse  before  there  was  any 
hope  of  their  growing  better;  like  the  physician 
who  made  it  his  standing  rule  of  practice,  in  all 


THE  METHODIST. 


247 


cases,  to  first  throw  his  patients  into  convulsions : 
there  he  had  them  where  he  wanted  them  exactly, 
for  that  was  his  specialty, — he  was  "  *  *  *  *  on  fits." 

Midnight  usually  brought  the  performances  to 
an  end.  The  last  hymn  was  sung,  the  last  prayer 
said  ;  the  multitudinous  noise  of  worship  rolling  off 
in  one  stormy,  final  discharge,  swept  in  fast-bearing 
reverberations  afar,  lessening  as  it  sped,  fainting, 
fading,  dying, — dead  in  the  distance;  quiet  ruled  in 
the  camp,  save  as  disturbed  by  the  occasional  burst 
of  a  sob,  or  groan,  or  shout  of  "  Glory !"  from  some 
not  entirely-subsided  enthusiast;  lights  were  extin 
guished  ;  worshipers  retired  to  their  tents.  The 
curtain  had  dropped  on  the  closing  scene,  and  the 
drama  was  ended. 

Journeying  thus  from  post  to  post,  the  itinerant 
pursued  his  mission,  erecting  new  stations,  plant 
ing  new  societies,  creating  new  classes,  and  en 
larging  generally  the  borders  of  the  Methodist 
Zion.  Repeated  riding  of  his  circuit  made  its 
course  a  familiar  one.  His  own  presence,  and  that 
of  his  horse,  became  accustomed  ones  to  the  peo 
ple.  He  formed  acquaintance  with  man,  woman, 
and  child  at  every  cabin.  He  won  upon  their  con 
fidence  by  conforming  to  their  ways  and  partici 
pating  in  their  social  usages, — ready  ever  for  any 
reasonable  frolic :  to  take  a  hand  at  a  husking,  lend 
a  lift  at  a  raising,  be  about  at  a  log-rolling,  stir  his 
turn  at  an  apple-butter  boiling,  or  handle  a  cleaver 
at  sausage-chopping  on  a  butchering-day.  Nor 


248  BLACK-ROBES. 

would  he  frown  upon  the  harmless  enjoyments  of 
the  young  men  and  maidens  at  their  festivities  of 
a  winter  evening  ;  as,  indeed,  why  should  he  ?  for 
"Peeling  the  willow"  was  not  proscribed  by  the 
Book  of  Discipline,  nor  promiscuous  kissing  in 
"  Come,  Philander,  let's  be  marching,"  nor  "  hold 
ing"  in  "Tired  of  my  company,"  nor  "bundling" 
as  an  institution  by  itself.  By  secular  conformities 
and  indulgences  such  as  these,  the  preacher  estab 
lished  himself  in  the  popular  liking.  For  patron 
age  bestowed,  he  enjoyed  it,  reciprocally,  at  his 
own  soirees ;  and  improved  it, — with  what  result, 
arithmetically  considered,  was  made  largely  to 
figure  on  the  records  of  the  next  annual  conference, 
where  it  stands  yet  in  authentic  confirmation  of 
the  marvelous  doings  of  those  Pentecostal  days. 


V. 

THE    CANE-RIDGE    REVIVAL. 

/"^AMP-MEETINGS  had  their  origin,  as  de- 
* — '  scribed,  in  the  year  1800.  The  first  experi 
ments  met  with  such  extraordinary  success  that 
they  were  rapidly  followed  up  by  others,  and  with 
a  continually  growing  patronage,  so  that  attend 
ants,  counted  in  the  beginning  by  scores,  multiplied 


METHODIST. 


249 


into  fifties,  from  fifties  increased  into  hundreds,  and 
presently  were  reckoned  by  thousands.  The  first 
of  the  more  imposing  series  that  figure  so  promi 
nently  on  the  autobiographical  page,  happened  at 
Cabin  Creek,  Kentucky,  in  the  spring  of  1801. 
This  was  succeeded,  with  brief  intervals  of  time 
and  accommodating  ones  of  distance,  by  others  at 
Concord,  Point  Pleasant,  and  Indian  Creek.  But 
the  illustrious  one,  where  occurred  the  famous 
Cumberland  Revival,  and  which  the  few,  the  very 
few  gray-bearded  fathers  still  living  who  were  wit 
nesses  of  it,  always  refer  to  with  proudest  satisfac 
tion,  took  place  in  August,  and  was  held  at  Cane 
Ridge. 

The  Rev.  Robert  W.  Finley,  a  Presbyterian 
minister  originally  from  Pennsylvania,  had  re 
moved  to  Kentucky,  and,  in  1790,  fixed  his  resi 
dence  in  Bourbon  County,  where,  clearing  a  spot 
out  of  the  canebrakes,  which  grew  all  over  the 
broad  acres  there  for  miles,  he  built  a  log  cabin, 
opened  a  farm,  and  erected  a  church.  The  scene 
of  the  great  revival  in  question  lay  within  the  lines 
of  his  parish.  The  miraculous  manifestations,  as 
they  were  regarded,  of  the  divine  presence  at  the 
previous  meetings,  had  long  been  the  topic  of  talk 
abroad,  and  the  settlers,  all  on  the  tiptoe  of  ex 
pectation,  were  ready  to  take  advantage  of  the 
leisure  which  the  season  offered,  attend  at  the  ap 
pointed  place,  and  put  to  the  proof  of  their  own 
eyes'  witness  the  marvels  of  which  they  had  been 


250 


BLACK-ROBES. 


told.  Multitudes  that  might  not  be  numbered 
began  to  assemble.  From  the  remotest  corners 
of  the  border,  thirty,  forty,  fifty  miles  away,  they 
gathered  in.  All  day  long,  and  through  the  night, 
crowds  were  to  be  seen  pressing  eagerly,  earnestly 
on,  their  faces  set  Zionward,  in  wagons,  on  sleds, 
afoot,  "  upon  norses,  and  in  chariots,  and  in  litters, 
and  upon  mules,  and  upon  swift  beasts."  Roads, 
lanes,  trails,  all  passable  ways  of  approach,  swarmed 
with  train  following  train  of  pilgrims;  the  tramp 
of  their  progress  uprooting  the  sod,  which  hoof 
and  wheel,  till  then,  of  customary  travel  had 
scarcely  scarred,  and  grinding  the  clodded  surface 
of  the  soil  to  powder.  Whole  communities,  in 
cluding  not  merely  the  men,  women,  and  children, 
but  slaves  and  dogs  even,  gathered  in  compa 
nies  and  joined  the  general  procession,  leaving 
only  an  obliging  neighbor,  here  and  there,  to  keep 
watch  in  the  depopulated  settlements  during  their 
absence.  When  all  were  congregated,  it  is  esti 
mated  that  there  were  from  twenty  to  twenty- 
five  thousand  people  on  the  ground.  The  usual 
accommodations  in  the  way  of  huts  and  tents 
were  erected  on  the  premises,  together  with  a 
large  shed  capable  of  affording  shelter,  in  case 
of  unfavorable  weather,  to  five  thousand  persons. 
Shanties  were  constructed  for  use  of  such  as  chose 
to  turn  an  honest  penny  by  offering  entertainment, 
at  so  much  a  head,  to  casual  visitors;  and  booths 
"for  them  that  sold  doves,"  each  with  its  counter 


THE  METHODIST. 


251 


or  table,  knocked  rudely  but  substantially  together, 
of  boards,  whereupon  were  arranged  platters, 
spoons,  knives  and  forks,  unctuous  from  much 
handling,  and  supply-dishes,  which,  replenished 
whenever  emptied  with  steaming  meats  and  vege 
tables,  proved  temptingly  provocative  of  appetite, 
and  seldom  grew  cold  for  want  of  consumers. 

Outside  the  sanctum  of  the  encampment,  but 
closely  crowding  on  it,  were  pitched  the  tents  of 
the  unbelievers — a  promiscuous  class — consisting 
largely  of  horse-thieves,  gamblers,  blasphemers, 
drunkards,  adulterers,  and  "partakers  in  all  manner 
of  wickedness."  Associated  with  the  vicious  and 
lawless,  but  not,  as  yet,  utterly  contaminated  by 
the  contact,  were  to  be  found  the  classes  addicted 
to  simply  mischievous  exploits,  and  technically 
known  as  the  careless, — "  men  of  awful  depravity, 
that  would  sport  while  the  very  fires  of  perdition 
were  kindling  around  them."  A  favorite  amuse 
ment  with  these  sons  of  Belial  was  to  play  prac 
tical  jokes  on  the  preachers  and  mourners.  They 
were  also  given  to  cropping  the  manes  and  shaving 
the  tails  of  horses ;  to  tarring  the  seats  and  taking 
linchpins  out  of  wagons;  to  detaching  girths  from 
saddles,  and  pilfering  halters,  whips,  and  bridles. 

Of  such  huge  and  heterogeneous  composition 
as  was  the  meeting, — without  power,  and,  indeed, 
without  the  disposition,  to  enforce  order;  where 
rather,  on  the  contrary,  lawlessness  seemed  to  be 
the  accepted  law  of  the  hour, — it  is  in  no  wise  sur- 


252 


BLACK-ROBES. 


prising  that  "nothing  was  exhibited  to  the  specta 
tor  but  a  scene  of  confusion,  such  as  scarcely  could 
be  put  into  human  language."  As  many  as  seven 
preachers,  out  of  some  thirty  or  forty  present, 
were  to  be  heard  declaiming  at  the  same  time;  one 
posted  on  the  platform,  another  mounted  in  a 
wagon,  others  pulpited  on  stumps,  and  still  others 
perched  on  the  trunks  of  fallen  trees.  The  noise 
of  their  eloquence  "was  like  the  roar  of  Niagara." 
Sermon,  or  exhortation,  prepared  the  way  for 
the  more  striking  proceedings.  At  its  close  the 
pent  up  enthusiasm  of  the  audience  began  to 
discharge.  A  universal  cry  for  mercy  arose.  As 
hearts  were  hopeful  or  despondent,  their  corre 
sponding  demonstrations  followed.  The  terror- 
stricken  and  despairing  maddened  the  air  with 
ravings  of  anguish.  Those  whose  eyes  caught 
glimpses  of  the  dawn  of  redemption  were  in  rap 
tures  of  ecstasy.  Every  variety  of  emotion,  in 
every  form  of  expression,  found  vent  at  the  same 
time.  Sharply  piercing  up  through  the  heavy 
under-swell  of  sound  that  rolled  and  roared,  and 
without  break  or  pause  kept  steadily  surging  on, 
wild  exclamations  in  horrible  commingling  were 
to  be  heard, — shrieks  of  "hell!  hell-fire!  damna 
tion!"  blending  with  screams  of  "glory!  glory  to 
God!  hallelujah  !"  The  people  had  come  prepared 
for  the  infection,  expecting  it,  with  their  hearts 
set  on  it,  their  nerves  strung  for  it;  and  they 
caught  it  readily.  As  with  a  battalion  in  a  battle- 


THE  METHODIST. 


253 


field  or  a  bevy  of  misses  in  a  boarding-school  but  an 
example  is  needed  to  bring  about  a  general  preva 
lence  of  panic  or  hysterics,  so  a  first  outbreak  of 
disorder  was  all  that  was  wanting — all  that  was 
waited  for — to  involve  the  whole  camp  in  derange 
ment.  Each  following  moment  added  fresh  'im 
pulse  and  new  variety  to  the  excitement.  Sinners 
were  arrested, —  became  wrestling  Jacobs, — pre 
vailed,  and  were  happy, — all  ere  the  echoes,  order 
by  order,  had  well  died  away  of  the  vociferations 
which  indicated  the  various  stages  of  the  proceed 
ing.  Penitents,  passing  at  a  step  from  darkness 
into  light,  became  "experienced."  The  exhorted 
at  one  moment  were  the  exhorters  at  the  next, 
flying  to  their  unregenerate  friends  and  entreating 
them  with  powerful  persuasion  and  tears  of  com 
passion  to  fly  to  Christ  for  mercy.  Some,  under 
conviction  and  impelled  by  terror,  tore  themselves 
from  the  embraces  of  anxious  relatives  and  strug 
gled  hard  to  escape  from  the  ground.  Others  wept 
and  groaned,  and  piteously  appealed  to  Heaven  for 
consolation;  while  others  still  fell  to  the  earth  and 
swooned  away,  "till  every  appearance  of  life  was 
gone,  and  the  extremities  of  the  body  assumed  the 
coldness  of  death." 

A  boy,  ten  years  of  age,  who  for  some  time  had 
stood  as  a  listener  near  a  platform  occupied  by 
one  of  the  declaimers,  felt  himself  suddenly  pos 
sessed  of  "very  strong  impressions."  Starting 
from  his  place,  he  hurried  a  short  distance  apart, 
22 


254  BLACK-ROBES. 

mounted  a  log,  and,  lifting  up  his  voice  in  a  most 
affecting  manner,  began  to  prophesy  before  the 
congregation.  "  On  the  last  day  of  the  feast,"  he 
exclaimed,  "  Jesus  stood  and  cried,  If  any  man 
thirst,  let  him  come  unto  me  and  drink."  The 
people  turned  at  the  sound  of  his  voice,  and, 
attracted  by  the  novelty  of  the  incident,  gathered 
in  a  great  crowd  about  the  juvenile  orator.  He 
was  evidently  an  acute  observer,  had  watched  the 
arts  of  his  clerical  elders,  and  copied  them  well. 
Amid  profuse  tears  he  directed  his  appeal  to  sin 
ners  ;  pictured,  in  a  professional  way  that  indicated 
a  remarkable  memory,  the  terrible  destiny  reserved 
for  the  unrighteous,  and  then,  by  way  of  enticing 
contrast,  the  golden  rewards  that  awaited  the 
penitent  in  the  Beautiful  Land  reserved  for  their 
inheritance.  His  audience  pressed  closer  and 
closer  about  him,  until  soon  his  voice  was  smoth 
ered  and  his  person  lost  sight  of  amid  the  throng. 
He. was  on  the  point,  apparently,  of  being  com 
pletely  extinguished,  when  two  strong  men  of  the 
inner  circle,  seizing  him  in  their  arms,  lifted  him  up 
above  the  heads  of  the  rest,  and  held  him  there, 
while  for  nearly  an  hour  he  exhorted  "  with  that 
convincing  eloquence  that  could  be  inspired  only 
from  heaven."  When  exhausted,  at  last,  of  strength 
and  of  language,  he  took  out  his  handkerchief, 
and,  letting  it  fall  from  his  hand,  brought  his  re 
marks  to  a  close  by  a  happy  practical  application 
of  the  device :  "  Thus,  O  sinner,"  said  he,  "  will 


THE  METHODIST.  2$$ 

you  drop  into  hell  unless  you  forsake  your  sins 
and  turn  to  God !"  With  the  descent  of  the  hand 
kerchief,  descended  the  power  of  God  upon  the 
assembly.  Sinners  fell  as  men  slain  in  mighty 
battle.  Cries  for  mercy  rent  the  heavens,  "and 
the  work  spread  in  a  manner  which  human  lan 
guage  cannot  describe." 

The  falling  feature  was  the  striking  one  of  the 
Cane-Ridge  meeting.  It  had  been  witnessed  be 
fore,  but  not,  till  then,  to  any  remarkable  extent. 
The  manifestations  attending  it  were  peculiar  and 
really  surprising,  although  not  unaccountable.  The 
subject,  after  having,  under  the  stimulating  influ 
ence  of  the  unaccustomed  atmosphere  of  the  camp, 
been  medicined  up  to  a  fitting  state  of  susceptibility, 
found  himself,  suddenly  and  without  the  slightest 
premonition,  beset  with  a  nervous  affection,  the 
action  of  which  was,  out  of  the  order  of  all  pre 
cedent,  capricious  and  uncontrollable.  Certain 
members  of  the  body  would  cease  in  their  office, 
as  though  numbed  by  paralysis,  while  others,  as 
if  to  compensate  for  the  delinquency,  would  run 
into  extravagant  excesses  of  action.  Legs  would 
fail  and  sink  helplessly  under  their  proper  burden, 
while  arms  would  flourish  wildly  against  the  will 
and  with  unnatural  energy.  Some  among  the 
seized  were  struck  dumb;  others  preserved  control 
of  their  voices,  but  used  them  in  a  very  ridiculous 
manner,  laughing,  barking  like  dogs,  howling  like 
wolves,  bellowing,  bleating,  and  caterwauling;  at 


256  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

the  same  time  leaping  and  dancing  like  dervishes 
or  rolling  on  the  ground  and  wriggling  like  Obi- 
men  at  a  pow-wow.  Frequently  cases  happened 
where  all  the  symptoms  attending  dissolution  ap 
peared.  The  pulse  gradually  faded,  the  breath 
came  and  went  in  sobs  and  gasps,  with  longer  and 
longer  intervals  of  suspended  respiration,  until  it 
ceased  altogether,  and  the  body  lay  as  dead,  still, 
staring,  and  cold,  for  hours.  While  the  catalepsy 
lasted,  the  patient  retained  full  possession  of  his  con 
sciousness,  nor,  through  it  all,  was  there  (although 
the  authorities  here  are  somewhat  contradictory) 
the  slightest  experience  of  physical  discomfort. 

The  jerks,  as  the  phenomenon  got  to  be  popu 
larly  called,  were  not  confined  to  the  camp-inclosure 
exclusively,  neither  were  their  attacks  limited  to 
seekers  and  mourners.  The  thoughtless  and  care 
less  among  sinners  outside  were  visited  as  well, 
one  and  another  being  brought  down  "suddenly, 
as  if  struck  by  lightning."  Professed  infidels  and 
scoffers  were  leveled,  with  the  language  of  blas 
phemy  on  their  lips.  Ladies  were  attacked  at 
breakfast  over  their  toast  and  tea.  Tossing  their 
cups  and  saucers  to  the  ceiling,  they  would  dash 
from  the  table  in  great  haste,  "  their  long  suits  of 
braided  hair  hanging  down  their  backs  at  times 
cracking  like  a  whip."  A  converted  dancing- 
master,  witnessing  the  behavior  of  the  possessed, 
declared  that  the  devil  was  at  the  bottom  of  it, 
and  he  was  determined  "to  preach  it  out  of  the 


THE  METHODIST.  257 

Methodist  Church."  He  ran  to  a  stand,  took  his 
text,  and  tried  it ;  but,  before  fairly  aware  of  it,  his 
subject  got  the  better  of  him,  and  he  was  himself 
helplessly  under  its  influence.  His  tongue  became 
entangled  in  its  thread  of  discourse.  Falling  into 
a  silly  repetition  of  "Ah,  yes! — Oh,  no!" — terms 
thrust  irrelevantly  into  his  harangue,  and  on  which 
he  stumbled, — the  jingle  of  the  syllables,  iterated 
over  and  over  again,  became  forcibly  suggestive 
of  music  and  motion.  Only  the  hint  was  needed 
to  call  into  action  the  old  professional  habit,  and 
the  dancing-master,  himself  again,  armed  in  ima 
gination  with  the  implements  of  his  art,  was  in 
stantly  absorbed  in  the  execution  of  a  jig,  fingers 
and  elbow  furiously  at  play,  while  toe  and  heel 
tapped,  sounding  time  to  the  dumb  performance, 
on  the  bare  boards  of  the  floor.  He  had  over 
estimated  his  strength:  still,  vanquished,  inglo- 
riously  vanquished  as  he  was,  "his  proud  heart 
would  not  submit.  He  gave  up  the  circuit  and 
retired,  and  his  sun  went  down  under  a  cloud." 

A  certain  young  man,  "tall"  and  terrible, — an 
Arba  among  the  Anakim  of  the  outer  precinct, — 
who  sat  mounted  on  a  fine,  large  white  horse, 
forming  one  of  a  party  of  scoffers  near  by,  being 
instigated  by  the  prime  Planner  of  all  Mischief,  put 
spurs  to  his  steed,  and,  breaking  from  his  comrades, 
dashed  at  full  gallop  through  the  line  of  tents  into 
the  inclosure  and  among  the  worshipers,  uttering 
horrible  imprecations  as  he  made  the  charge.  Still 
22* 


258 


BLACK-ROBES. 


plunging  on,  he  forced  his  way,  until,  coming 
abreast  of  a  kneeling  band  of  seekers,  his  course 
was  arrested.  The  mysterious  Agency  of  the  Air, 
the  Angel  of  Conviction,  waiting  its  opportunity, 
had  met  it  then  and  there:  instantly,  as  though 
an  arrow  sped  from  its  bow  had  pierced  his  heart, 
the  reins  dropped  from  his  grasp,  he  reeled  in  his 
saddle,  and  tumbled  lifeless  to  the  ground;  the 
religious  multitude  testifying  their  exultation  at 
the  coup  de  grace  in  bursts  of  applause  addressed 
to  the  Deity,  and  with  songs  of  praise  and  shouts 
of  hallelujah!  For  thirty  hours  the  young  man 
lay  apparently  dead.  Symptoms  of  returning 
animation  then  began  to  appear,  rapidly  eventu 
ating,  through  a  series  of  convulsions  attended  by 
fearful  groans,  in  complete  recovery.  But  that 
was  not  all.  His  newly -aroused  self  was  no 
longer  the  Heaven-defiant  self  of  the  past.  Out 
of  that  Lethean  sleep  he  awoke  a  new  being. 
"  The  fiendlike  scowl  that  had  overspread  his 
features  gave  way  to  a  happy  smile,  and,  springing 
to  his  feet,  the  accents  of  anguish  were  changed 
into  the  loud  and  joyous  shouts  of  praise." 

One  Dr.  P.  and  an  interesting  young  lady  of 
Lexington,  both  "  inexperienced,"  visited  the  camp 
from  motives  of  curiosity,  mutually  agreeing  before 
hand  that,  if  either  of.  them  should  happen  to  be 
jerked,  the  other  would  stand  by  and  have  a  care 
over  the  victim  until  he  or  she,  as  the  case  might 
be,  recovered  from  the  attack.  The  lady,  in  all 


THE  METHODIST.  259 

her  pride,  as  the  narrative  relates,  was  soon  pros 
trated.  The  physician  laid  his  finger  on  her  wrist, 
found  her  pulse  gone,  became  agitated,  turned 
pale,  and,  staggering  a  step  or  two,  sunk  down, 
inanimate  as  she,  in  the  dust  beside  her.  After 
remaining  for  some  time  in  this  state,  they  both 
obtained  pardon  and  peace,  and  went  home  re 
joicing.  Persons  were  seized  on  the  road  going 
to,  and  returning  from,  the  camp;  at  taverns  where 
they  halted  as  they  went,  frequently  in  the  act  of 
taking  the  favorite  tonic  of  the  day,  at  the  bar,  by 
way  of  prevention;  at  their  plows  in  the  field,  at 
their  drudgeries  in  the  kitchen,  and  at  their  family 
and  closet  devotions.  Sinners  wondered  at  it, 
affected  to  laugh  at  it,  feared  it,  were  fascinated  by 
it,  flocked  to  the  scene — the  central  scene — of  its 
operations,  and  straightway  were  down  under  the 
invisible  stroke  of  its  dealing.  Like  bullocks  under 
blow  of  the  axe  in  a  slaughter-pen  when  execu 
tioners  are  busiest  in  packing-time,  they  dropped, 
— hundreds  upon  hundreds,  nay,  thousands,  falling 
of  a  night.  Intense  excitement,  accompanied  with 
fearful  forebodings  of  calamity,  prevailed  among 
the  people.  Many  thought,  with  the  dancing- 
master,  that  Satan  with  his  imps  had  been  let 
loose,  and  suffered,  for  a  purpose,  to  enter  into  the 
hearts  of  men,  as  they  were  of  old  into  the  swine, 
what  time  the  herd  ran  violently  down  a  steep 
place  into  the  sea  and  perished  in  the  waters. 
Some  imagined  that  because  the  land  abounded  in 


26o  BLACK-ROBES. 

wickedness,  a  visitation  of  divine  judgment  was 
decreed  against  the  nation ;  while  others,  filled 
with  alarm,  supposed  that  the  Day  of  Wrath  was 
at  hand,  and  that  the  elements  were  about  to  melt 
with  fervent  heat,  and  the  earth  to  be  consumed. 

To  quiet  the  apprehensions  of  the  timid  and  to 
silence  the  misgivings  of  the  skeptical,  certain  of 
the  wise  among  the  churchmen  applied  themselves 
to  the  task  of  a  rational  solution  of  the  mystery. 
The  work  was  satisfactorily  achieved;  the  nar 
rative  of  it,  as  historically  transmitted  to  posterity, 
running  substantially  thus  : — 

It  is  well  known  that  the  Baptists  embrace  in 
their  communion  a  large  proportion  of  the  popu 
lation  of  Kentucky,  and  that  they  rigidly  adhere 
to  the  doctrines  of  unconditional  election  and 
reprobation,  as  well  as  to  the  pernicious  heresy 
of  the  final  and  unconditional  perseverance  of  the 
saints.  It  is  equally  well  kr^own  that  the  same 
mischievous  dogmas  are  held  and  taught  by  the 
Presbyterians.  Indeed,  so  generally  have  these 
errors  been  preached  by  these  denominations 
that  no  one  entertaining  genuine  scriptural  views 
has  heretofore  been  found  fearless  and  independ 
ent  enough  to  call  them  in  question.  The  con 
sequence  is  that  they  have  taken  deeper  and 
deeper  root,  and  continued  to  spread,  until  it  may 
be  said  that  the  doctrines  of  Calvin  have  filled  the 
whole  country.  Under  the  prevalence  of  such 
teachings,  supported  as  they  are  by  polemical 


THE  METHODIST.  26 1 

divines,  whose  religion  consists  almost  entirely  in 
a  most  dogged  and  pertinacious  adherence  to  the 
creeds  and  confessions  of  faith  handed  down  from 
orthodox  Puritan  fathers,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
professors  of  religion  have  fallen  insensibly  into 
Antinomianisrn.  The  inconsistencies  of  Calvin 
have  become  the  subject  of  the  sarcastic  sneers  of 
infidels,  and  the  inability  of  his  followers  to  recon 
cile  their  doctrines  "with  the  justice  of  God  and 
the  present  order  of  things "  is  making  fearful 
inroads  on  the  faith,  and  strengthening  the  hands 
of  the  wicked.  The  friends  of  the  truth  have  been 
few,  comparatively  uninfluential,  and  exposed  to 
much  persecution.  At  this  juncture  it  has  pleased 
the  Lord  to  look  down  upon  the  people  of  this 
Western  country.  Man's  extremity  is  God's 
opportunity,  and  these  wonderful  manifestations 
which  are  witnessed  are  assuredly  of  Heaven, 
given  in  evidence,  so  startling  as  not  to  be  mis 
taken,  that  the  Almighty  means  to  sweep  away 
Baptist-ism,  and  Presbyterianism,  and  every  other 
refuge  of  lies ;  to  confound  infidelity  and  vice, 
"  and  bring  numbers  beyond  calculation  under  the 
influence  of  experimental  religion  and  practical 
piety." 

No  exact  record  of  the  saving  results  of  the 
Cane-Ridge  meeting  has  been  preserved ;  but  if  an 
estimate  may  be  inferred  from  the  statement  of  one 
of  the  chroniclers,  that  he  saw  as  many  as  "at 
least  five  hundred  swept  down  in  a  moment,"  the 


262  BLA  CK-R  OSES. 

cases  of  conversion  must  have  been  exceedingly 
numerous.  But  the  revival  bore  other  fruits,  which 
were  more  decided  in  character,  more  lasting,  and 
much  less  gratifying.  While  the  orthodox  laborers 
were  planting  the  seed,  and  from  the  budding  pros 
pects  of  the  field  were  rejoicing  in  the  hope  of  an 
abundant  harvest,  the  enemy  came  in  and  began  to 
sow  tares  broadcast  among  the  grain.  Gross  errors 
and  heresies  sprang  up  and  spread  among  the 
faithful.  The  belief  fundamental  to  Methodism, 
that  Heaven  made  choice  of  its  gospelers  by  special 
election,  and  that  the  gift  of  preaching  came  by  in 
spiration, — that  its  exhorters,  in  other  words,  like 
the  anointed  of  old,  were  "holy  men  of  God,  who 
spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit," — was 
one  which  was  well  calculated  to  tempt  the  enthu 
siast,  especially  under  extraordinary  excitements, 
widely  and  wildly  astray.  What  were  Books  of  Dis 
cipline,  what  were  creeds  concocted  at  conferences 
and  promulgated  by  human  authorities,  to  him, — 
what  would  they  have  been  to  Isaiah,  or  to  Paul,  or 
to  Wesley,  singled  out,  himself  and  all  alike,  as  pro 
phets  of  the  Lord, — that  the  supremely  illuminated 
and  impliedly  infallible  judgment  of  either  should 
be  hemmed  in  by  their  limitations  or  embarrassed 
by  their  restraints  ?  The  result  may  be  antici 
pated.  Old  confessions  were  repudiated ;  the  Bible 
was  pronounced  the  only  rule  of  faith  ;  each  man 
became  his  own  interpreter,  no  two  interpreting 
alike ;  and  soon  the  region  swarmed  with  saintly 


THE  METHODIST.  263 

adventurers,  who  scoured  the  country,  scattering 
wide  the  brands  of  schism  and  making  grievous 
havoc  among  the  churches. 

Enticed  by  the  example  of  half  a  dozen  illiterate 
Presbyterians  who  had  been  irregularly  admitted 
into  the  ministerial  office,  and  who  had  likewise  be 
come  tainted  with  the  prevailing  distemper,  a  party 
of  separatists,  under  the  lead  of  James  O'Kelly,  a 
disappointed  candidate  for  a  Methodist  bishopric, 
banded  together,  forming  a  society  and  designating 
themselves  as  Neiv-LigJits,  or  Christians.  Their 
specialty  was  a  creed  denunciatory  of  creeds  ;  their 
confession  was  a  protest  against  confessions,  and 
their  church  an  organized  body  formed  to  resist 
organizations.  They  repudiated  the  doctrines  of 
the  Trinity,  of  total  depravity,  and  of  the  atone 
ment.  Governor  Garrard,  of  Kentucky,  fell  into 
the  heresy,  and  made  himself  somewhat  famous  in 
the  composition  of  a  tract  on  one  of  the  topics — 
that  touching  the  question  of  Christ's  divinity — 
in  controversy.  Others  of  the  sloughers-ofT  at 
tached  themselves  to  the  Quakers,  a  company  of 
whom  from  the  State  of  New  York  had  recently 
planted  a  settlement  in  the  region.  Elder  Holmes, 
a  sort  of  Peter  the  Hermit,  conceived  the  notion 
that  the  restoration  was  at  hand,  gathered  around 
him  a  group  of  followers,  and  started  off  for  the 
prairies  in  search  of  the  Holy  Land.  For  many 
days  he  wandered  about,  reaching  at  last  an  island 
in  the  Mississippi  River,  where,  to  the  interruption 


264  BLACK-ROBES. 

of  his  enterprise  and  the  sad  disappointment  of  his 
attendants,  he  sickened  and  died.  Elder  Farnum 
became  the  founder  of  the  model  institution  of  the 
Screaming  Children ;  and  brother  Abel  Sargent, 
the  Halcyon  Preacher  and  Millennial  Messenger, 
who  lived  on  very  intimate  terms  with  the  angels, 
and  received  his  dispatches  statedly,  like  any  other 
foreign  ambassador,  from  heaven,  appeared  as  a 
second  Messiah,  perambulating  the  wilderness 
with  his  twelve  disciples, — all  women, — and  pro 
claiming  his  revelations.  He  denied  that  there 
was  a  devil,  a  hell,  or  a  future  judgment.  On  a 
"  banter  "  of  one  of  his  apostles,  he  undertook  a 
forty  days'  fast,  in  imitation  of  the  memorable  one 
in  the  Wilderness.  He  persevered  in  the  experi 
ment,  actually  abstaining  all  the  while  from  food, 
for  sixteen  days,  when,  still  persisting,  he  died  from 
starvation.  A  certain  zealot  of  the  name  of  Kid- 
well  also  began  to  prophesy,  affirming  that  men 
were  never  excluded  from  heaven  because  of  crime; 
that  God  would  not  retaliate  wrong  for  wrong;  that 
expiation  in  the  flesh  follows  for  offenses  of  the 
flesh,  and  that  out  of  the  body  is  neither  sin  nor 
punishment, — the  souls  of  all,  awarded  the  one 
destiny,  sharing  alike  in  the  delights  of  Paradise. 
The  measure  of  success  attending  the  labors  of 
these  reformers  has  not  been  recorded. 

The  "Falling  Exercise"  continued  for  some  time 
to  prevail  as  a  "  manifestation  "  in  the  churches,  but 
not  with  the  "  power  and  demonstration  "  that  gave 


THE  METHODIST.  265 

it  its  marked  distinction  on  this  occasion.  The 
cases  of  "  arrest,"  however,  as  faith  in  its  efficacy 
as  a  converting  instrumentality  began  to  waver, 
became  fewer  and  fewer,  ceasing  eventually  alto 
gether.  Near  about  the  same  time,  indeed,  it 
broke  out  again,  but  in  a  different  settlement  of  the 
border  then,  and  among  the  congregations  of  a  dif 
ferent  people.  As  among  Methodists,  its  epidemical 
career  was  limited  to  the  one  season  and  the  one 
spot, — in  its  traditional  association  with  which  the 
"Cane-Ridge"  has  become  famous  first  among 
camp-meetings,  and  the  "  Cumberland  "  of  tower 
ing  renown  among  revivals. 


VI. 


MENTIONABLE   MEN   AMONG  THE   PREACHERS   OF   THE 
BORDER. 

WHEN  the  material  is  considered  of  which 
the  Methodist  ministry  in  border-days  was 
composed,  it  could  scarcely  be  expected  that  any 
of  the  order  should  have  attained  to  such  a  degree 
of  eminence  as  would  challenge  specially  the  notice 
of  after-times.     Two  hundred  and  eighty  preachers, 
through  the  first  sixteen  years'  existence  of  the 
church   on   the   frontier,  constituted  the   clerical 
23 


266  BLACK-ROBES. 

(itinerant)  force  of  the  service.  They  were  all 
uneducated,  save  in  the  simplest  rudiments  of  com 
mon-school  learning ;  or,  as  one  of  their  number 
who  has  written  a  book  is  pleased  to  express  it, 
"  there  was  not  a  single  literary  man  among  them." 
Minds  gotten  up  after  that  sort  of  fashioning  are 
not  of  the  stamp  to  make  a  mark  that  is  likely  to 
prove  permanently  prominent. 

But  there  were  those  who  in  their  day  and  gen 
eration  had  a  distinction,  and  who  in  the  circuits 
over  which  they  traveled  were  famous.  Good 
fighting-properties  —  and  propensities — were  re 
spected  in  the  church  as  well  as  out  of  it ;  and  the 
Black-Robe  who,  boldly  offering  or  accepting  de 
fiance,  stood  always  ready,  under  provocation,  to 
whip  or  be  whipped,  was  noted  and  petted  among 
believers  quite  as  much  as  could  have  been  Crib 
or  Molyneaux  among  bruisers.  John  Ray  has  an 
honorable  mention  in  history  because  of  his  "  great 
muscular  power  and  natural  courage,"  an  illustra 
tion  of  which  has  been  particularly  set  forth  in  an 
anecdote.  Himself  and  a  party  of  other  itinerants 
in  the  course  of  their  journeying  were  approaching 
a  toll-gate  which,  near  where  the  road  branched, 
had  recently  been  moved  from  its  position  on  one 
of  the  forks  to  the  main  stem,  in  order  to  command 
passage  and  control  fare  from  travelers  along  both 
routes,  when  the  right  of  the  keeper  to  demand 
toll  was  called  in  question.  John  Ray  disputed  it 
roundly,  and  declared  that  if  the  rest  would  agree 


THE  METHODIST.  267 

he  would  carry  them  through  without  cost.  One 
of  his  companions  expressed  a  desire  to  know  how 
he  would  do  it.  "  I  will  ride  up  to  the  gate,"  said 
he,  "  and  command  the  keeper  to  open  it."  "  But 
suppose  he  declines  ?"  it  was  suggested.  "  Why, 
I  will  break  the  gate  down,"  said  John  Ray,  "  and 
let  him  do  his  worst."  To  avoid  the  fray  which 
he  knew  must  ensue,  one  of  the  more  peaceably 
disposed,  who  luckily  happened  to  be  the  purse- 
bearer  of  the  party,  trotted  on  in  advance  and 
settled  with  the  toll-man,  although  "  there  was  a 
great  deal  of  clamoring  behind  him,"  and  the 
"  company  looked  sour  and  showed  some  dissatis 
faction."  John  was  deprived  of  the  opportunity 
of  showing  his  muscle  on  the  occasion,  but  not  of 
demonstrating  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  fellow-itin 
erants  that  he  was  entirely  willing — in  fact,  that  he 
would  be  rather  glad  of  a  chance — to  put  it  to  the 
proof. 

Peter  Cartwright  stands  high  on  the  record  as  a 
sharer  in  his  honors  with  the  redoubtable  Ray  : 
hence  was  he  fancifully  known  as  the  "  Bull-dog  " 
among  the  saints,  as  well  as  among  the  sinners,  of 
his  time.  At  a  camp-meeting  attended  by  a  larger 
number  than  usual  of  "  rabble  and  rowdies,"  all 
drunk',  and  armed  with  dirks,  clubs,  knives,  and 
horse-whips,  two  finely-dressed  fellows  marched 
into  the  congregation  with  their  hats  on,  and  rose 
up  and  stood  in  the  midst  of  the  ladies  and  began 
to  laugh  and  talk.  They  were  ordered  to  desist, 


268  BLA  CK-R  OSES. 

but  declined,  couching  their  refusal  in  terms  which 
out  of  the  pulpit  were  considered  profane,  if  not 
blasphemous.  Peter  immediately  stepped  down 
from  the  platform,  walked  up  to  one  of  the  in 
vaders,  dodged  a  blow  from  a  loaded  whip  aimed 
at  his  head,  closed  in  on  his  man,  and  brought  him 
to  the  ground.  A  drunken  magistrate  interfered, 
and  ordered  the  reverend  combatant  to  let  his 
prisoner  loose  or  "  he  would  knock  him  down." 
Cartwright  invited  him,  very  coolly,  to  "  crack 
away."  The  officer  took  him  at  his  word,  and 
aimed  a  blow  which  might  have  damaged  his 
profile,  except  that  it  was  scientifically  parried  by 
the  preacher,  who,  taking  advantage  of  the  un 
guarded  instant,  jumped  in,  and,  seizing  the  coat- 
collar  of  his  antagonist  with  one  hand  and  his  hair 
with  the  other,  "  fetched  him  a  sudden  jerk  for 
ward,"  floored  him,  and  leaped  on  his  prostrate 
body.  The  ringleader  of  the  rioters  then  stepped 
forward  and  made  three  passes  at  Peter,  who,  ex 
hibiting  much  skill,  not  only  warded  off  the  thrusts, 
but,  watching  his  chance,  delivered  a  ri^ht-hander 
fair  "on  the  burr  of  the  ear"  in  return,  "which 
dropped  him  to  the  earth."  The  friends  of  order  then 
rushing  to  the  rescue,  the  mob  was  soon  dispersed. 
When  the  fight  was  ended,  Cartwright  resumed  his 
place  at  the  sacred  desk,  and,  taking  for  a  text  the 
appropriate  passage,  "  The  gates  of  hell  shall  not 
prevail,"  preached  a  sermon  with  such  "  power  and 
demonstration"  that  three  hundred  hearers  fell  like 


THE  METHODIST.  269 

dead  men  in  battle,  and  two  hundred  professed  re 
ligion  and  were  added  to  the  church. 

To  excel  in  the  art  lachrymose,  or  be  able  at 
will  to  command  the  shedding  of  tears,  was  es 
teemed  a  rare  accomplishment.  Ralph  Lotspiech, 
with  no  other  possibly  discoverable  virtue  to  dis 
tinguish  him,  was  nevertheless  a  man  of  mark 
because  of  his  proficiency  in  this  particular ;  and 
so,  as  the  Weeping  Prophet, — a  Niobe  in  broad 
cloth, — he  has  been  calendared  with  the  illustrious 
and  lives  among  the  immortal  of  the  period. 

Miracles,  not  at  all  uncommon  among  Method 
ists,  were  sometimes  a  means  of  celebrity.  Brother 
Joseph  Dickson,  a  great  hunter  and  trapper  of  the 
border,  having  provided  himself  with  the  necessary 
outfit,  took  passage  in  a  "  dug-out"  and  started  off 
on  a  voyage  to  the  wild  Indian  country  on  the 
Missouri.  Two  winters  were  spent  in  this  remote 
and  unfriendly  region.  To  protect  himself  against 
the  bitter  cold  of  the  climate,  he  made  an  excava 
tion  in  a  steep  hill-side,  where  he  managed  to  lodge 
with  tolerable  comfort.  The  glare  of  the  light  from 
the  snow,  however,  affected  his  eyes  to  such  an 
extent  that  ultimately,  towards  the  close  of  the 
second  winter,  he  became  blind.  Reduced  to  this 
helpless  and  hopeless  condition,  and  with  death 
apparently  certain  before  him,  he  began  to  realize 
how  great  a  sinner,  and  how  utterly  unprepared 
for  the  future,  he  was.  He  knelt  and  prayed,  and 
solemnly  vowed  to  God  that,  if  he  were  spared  and 

23* 


2/0  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

delivered,  his  life  should  thenceforth  be  devoted  to 
His  service.  All  of  a  sudden  there  was  a  strong 
impression  made  on  his  mind  that  if  he  would 
take  the  inside  bark  of  a  tree  that  grew  near  by  his 
cave,  and  beat  it  up  soft  and  fine,  soak  it  in  water, 
and  apply  it  as  a  wash,  his  vision  would  be  restored. 
He  tried  the  treatment  at  night,  and  awoke  in  the 
morning  to  find  the  inflammation  gone  and  his 
eyes  made  whole  again.  He  then  "  felt  that  God 
had  forgiven  his  sins,  and  that  he  ought  to  praise 
and  give  glory  to  His  name."  As  in  further  evi 
dence  of  the  special  interposition  of  Providence 
in  his  case,  it  is  stated  that,  spring  soon  opening, 
he  had  "astonishing  good  luck"  at  trapping,  se 
curing  a  great  amount  of  the  best  furs,  which  he 
afterwards  sold  in  St.  Louis  for  several  thousand 
dollars.  He  then  returned  home,  "  took  preach 
ing  into  his  cabin,"  joined  the  church,  became 
a  leader  and  steward,  and  acquired  a  renown  at 
once,  particularly  as  a  successful  agent  in  the  col 
lection  of  funds  for  the  support  of  the  gospel. 

Others,  again,  were  famed  as  dreamers  of  drea  r.s 
and  seers  of  visions;  their  power  and  scope  of 
clairvoyance  scarcely  up  to  the  old  prophetic 
standard,  perhaps,  but  among  believers  none  the 
less  credible  or  creditable  on  that  account.  John 
Stewart,  the  Mulatto  of  Marietta,  to  whom  allu 
sion  has  already  been  made,  slept,  and,  sleeping, 
dreamed  that  he  was  about  to  commence  a  reli 
gious  meeting.  While  seated,  awaiting  the  hour 


THE  METHODIST.  271 

appointed  for  the  opening  of  service,  an  Indian 
man  and  woman,  "clothed  in  particular  garments," 
entered  the  house  "in  a  peculiar  manner,"  saluted 
him,  shook  hands  with  him,  and  "seemed  to  mani 
fest  peculiar  earnestness  and  interest  in  regard 
to  his  message,"  It  was  mysteriously  made  to 
appear  to  John  that  they  invited  him  "to  go  and 
preach  for  their  people,"  living  somewhere,  not 
definitely  set  forth,  "  northwest  of  Marietta."  The 
dream  impressed  him  powerfully.  He  tried  to 
argue  the  force  of  it  away;  but  it  clung  to  him 
night  and  day.  Doubting  the  call  plunged  him 
into  a  state  of  mental  misery ;  the  favorable  con 
sideration  of  it  brought  "great  peace  and  joy  of 
mind."  He  retired  to  the  woods  and  fields,  day 
after  day,  to  pray,  and  at  each  visit  regularly  saw 
the  Indian  and  the  squaw,  always  seeming  to  come 
from  the  northwest  and  renewing  their  invitation 
"to  come  and  preach  for  them."  The  mental  an 
guish  resulting  from  the  difficulty  of  deciding  the 
question  of  duty  so  agitated  his  body  that  he  was 
thrown  into  a  severe  fit  of  sickness.  When  brought 
to  his  bed,  he  finally  resolved  that  as  soon  as  he 
could  "  pay  some  debts  which  he  had  contracted 
before  he  had  experienced  religion,"  he  would 
recognize  the  call  as  of  Providence,  and  go.  His 
health  and  strength  were  immediately  restored. 
Being  enabled  to  effect  a  settlement  of  the  pecu 
niary  claims  against  him,  he  prepared  himself  for 
his  missionary  enterprise,  followed  up  the  north- 


2;2  BLACK-ROBES. 

west  course,  according  to  direction,  and  in  due 
time  reached  a  small  settlement  of  half-breed 
Wyandots  on  the  Upper  Sandusky,  where  among 
the  first  to  accost  him  on  his  arrival  he  recognized 
instantly,  in  living  identity,  the  Indian  and  squaw 
of  his  vision,  —  a  manifest  confirmation  of  the 
divinity  of  the  dream. 

The  Rev.  Jonathan  Stamper  had  also  his  revela 
tions.  Once  upon  a  time,  in  a  "  remarkable  dream," 
he  had  an  interview  with  the  spirit  of  the  Rev. 
John  P.  Finley,  one  of  his  best  friends  in  life,  and 
for  whom  he  mourned  in  death  as  a  dear  brother 
departed ;  and  the  burden  of  the  vision  was  as 
follows : 

In  his  slumbers  Stamper  thought  that  he  went 
to  the  house  of  Finley,  who  welcomed  him  at  the 
door  with  his  usual  urbanity,  expressed  much 
gratification  at  the  visit,  took  him  in,  and  sat  down 
with  him,  side  by  side,  at  the  fire.  Jonathan,  al 
though  he  said  nothing,  felt  an  anxiety,  as  was 
natural,  to  learn  something  respecting  the  world 
of  spirits.  The  shade  of  the  departed,  divining 
the  desire,  said, — 

"  Brother,  you  are  filled  with  curiosity." 

"  Yes,"  Jonathan  replied ;  "  my  mind  has  taken 
a  very  curious  turn." 

"  Well,"  continued  the  shadow,  "  ask  any  ques 
tion  you  see  proper,  and  I  will  satisfy  you,  so  far 
as  I  can,  consistently  with  the  laws  of  the  country 
where  I  live." 


THE  METHODIST.  273 

"  Brother,"  Jonathan  then  began  to  interrogate, 
"  are  you  happy  ?" 

"  Happy  as  heaven  can  make  me,"  was  the  re 
sponse. 

"  When  you  died,  did  you  enter  immediately  into 
heaven  ?" 

"  No ;  but  I  immediately  started  for  it.  It  took 
me  three  days  to  make  the  journey,  though  I  sped 
with  the  velocity  of  a  sunbeam.  I  passed  beyond 
the  boundaries  of  this  system,  and  lost  sight  of  the 
most  distant  star  that  twinkles  in  these  skies,  and 
entered  into  thick  and  uninterrupted  darkness." 
Here  the  shadow  paused  for  a  moment;  then,  re 
suming  with  an  expressive  look,  "  Oh,  brother,"  it 
said,  "  hell  is  a  solemn  reality  ! — After  this,  I  all  at 
once  burst  into  the  glories  of  heaven." 

"  The  Scriptures  represent  heaven  as  a  glorious 
city,  such  a  one  as  was  never  seen  on  earth,  and 
by  other  splendid  and  beautiful  imagery.  Is  this 
entirely  figurative,"  inquired  the  dreamer,  "  or  is  it 
a  literal  description  ?" 

"  Partly  literal  and  partly  figurative,"  answered 
the  shade.  "  Heaven  is  a  local  residence  gloriously 
fitted  up  for  the  abode  of  saints  and  angels.  All 
the  beautiful  imagery  of  the  Scriptures  is  there 
seen,  though  of  a  spiritual  character ;  such  as  the 
trees  ever  green,  the  golden  streets,  etc." 

Jonathan  then  inquired  if  the  saints  in  heaven 
knew  each  other. 

The  deceased  assured  him  that  they  did,  per- 


274 


BLACK-ROBES. 


fectly.  He  knew  all  the  patriarchs,  prophets,  and 
apostles  at  sight 

Here  the  dreamer,  satisfied  with  his  examination, 
rested ;  when  his  ethereal  visitant,  who  seemed  to 
be  quite  as  much  in  the  dark  about  earthly  affairs 
as  was  his  brother  in  the  flesh  concerning  things 
celestial,  became  querist  in  return,  and  thus  began 
to  interview  the  slumberer : 

"  I  desire  to  know  how  you  are  getting  along  in 
the  good  work." 

"  About  as  we  were  when  you  were  with  us." 

"  Do  the  Methodists  pay  their  preachers  no 
better  than  formerly  ?" 

"  No !" 

"  Oh  !  what  a  pity  !  what  a  pity !  The  itinerant 
plan,"  the  shadow  of  the  old  exhorter  then  went 
on  to  say,  "  is  the  plan  of  God.  He  designs  it  to 
take  the  world,  and  nothing  will  prevent  it  but  a 
want  of  liberality  in  our  people.  You  must  never 
locate.  If  I  had  my  life  to  live  again,  I  would 
travel,  if  I  begged  my  bread  from  door  to  door.  If 
I  had  traveled  as  I  ought  to  have  done,  I  should 
have  shone  much  brighter  in  heaven  than  I  now 
do.  Don't  locate,  brother;  God  will  support  you." 
He  then  reached  up  to  the  chimney-piece,  the 
dreamer  proceeds  to  relate,  and  took  down  a  con 
siderable  roll  of  bank-notes  of  the  most  beautiful 
and  singular  appearance,  which  he  handed  to  Jona 
than,  saying,  "  Here, — these  are  for  you." 

Jonathan  suggested  that  perhaps  the  money  had 


THE  METHODIST.  275 

better  go  to  his  own  widow,  but  the  shade  an 
swered,  "  No ;  it  is  for  you.  There  is-  a  bank  in 
heaven  for  the  support  of  itinerant  preachers,  and 
this  is  for  you ;"  when  the  slumbering  brother  re 
luctantly  reached  out  his  hand  and  took  it  After 
some  loud  and  animated  shouting  and  singing,  the 
vision  ended,  and  the  sleeper  awoke. 

This  saintly  interview  of  Brother  Jonathan  must 
not  be  understood  as  a  humorous  invention,  de 
vised,  by  way  of  novelty,  as  a  hint  for  higher 
salaries,  but  as  a  circumstance  of  serious  fact  and 
worthy  of  most  sober  acceptance. 

Among  the  reverends  notable  for  their  early 
labors  along  the  bor-  er  are  to  be  found  such  men 
as  Thomas  Wilkinson,  John  Page,  John  Watson, 
Lewis  Garret,  Benjamin  Lakin,  Jesse  Walker,  Sam 
uel  Parker,  Samuel  Doughty,  Benjamin  Young, 
Anthony  Houston,  John  Adam  Granadd,  Jacob 
Young,  Archibald  McElroy, — distinguished  for 
his  "  peculiar  aversion  to  Calvinism," — and  the 
Bishops  Asbury  and  McKendree.  Jarvis  C.  Tay 
lor  has  a  rather  prominent  record  as  "a  pretty 
good  poet,'*and  the  author  of  a  pamphlet  under 
the  inviting  title  of  "  News  from  the  Infernal 
Regions."  James  Quinn,  who  "  lived  and  preached 
like  a  primitive  evangelist,"  enjoys  the  distinction, 
which  he  shares  with  his  "  poor  horse  Wilks,"  of 
having  been  first  to  carry  the  Methodist  gospel 
into  the  State  of  Ohio  (1799).  Four  years  later, 
having  been  appointed,  with  John  Meek  for  his 


2;6  BLACK-ROBES. 

colleague,  to  the  newly-created  "  Hockhocking 
Circuit,"  embracing  the  settlements  in  the  valleys 
of  the  Muskingum,  Scioto,  and  Hockhocking,  he 
made  his  permanent  abode  within  its  bounds. 
Benjamin  Lakin  is  known  in  connection  with  Peter 
Cartwright  as  having  been  the  original  pioneer  of 
the  Faith  in  Indiana  (1802),  among  the  borderers 
occupying  the  lands  opposite  Louisville.  These 
neighborhoods  were  formed  into  a  circuit  called  the 
"  Silver  Creek  Circuit,"  and  placed  under  charge 
of  Moses  Ainsworth,  in  1807.  The  credit  of  in 
troducing  Methodism  into  Illinois  (1793)  belongs 
to  Joseph  Lillard;  although  Hosea  Riggs  was  the 
first  to  settle  in  the  State,  about  five  years  later. 

Methodism  was  of  rapid  growth  in  the  back 
woods, — everywhere  except  in  Western  Pennsyl 
vania,  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  which 
"  Calvinism  and  Universalism  had  so  intrenched 
themselves  that  Methodism  could  scarcely  live," — 
its  preachers  "  not  hoping  to  rise  above  the  occu 
pation  in  the  church  of  hewing  wood  and  drawing 
water."  In  1800  the  communion,  embracing  the 
entire  membership  of  the  border,  numbered  2OOO 
souls.  In  1802  it  was  increased  to  7200;  in  1804, 
to  9600;  and  in  1811,  to  30,741.  Work  done 
quickly,  however,  is  seldom  work  done  well. 
Members  were  glued  to  the  surface  merely,  as 
would  appear,  not  mortised  into  the  body  of  belief; 
so  that,  while  there  is  room  for  regret,  there  is 
none  for  surprise,  that  they  should  hold  in  place 


THE  METHODIST.  277 

by  an  attachment  very  precarious,  and  extremely 
liable  to  come  apart  under  unfavorable  exposure. 
Three  thousand  cases  of  apostasy  are  reported  as 
having  occurred  within  one  year  (1812).  Perhaps 
it  was  from  the  commonness  of  a  tendency  thus  to 
lapse — natural,  nay,  inevitable,  from  the  "method" 
by  which  conversions  were  made — that,  to  meet 
the  exigency,  it  had  been  found  necessary  at  the 
outstart  to  declare  against  the  dogma  of  the  "  per 
severance  of  the  saints,"  and  not  only  to  confess 
the  possibility  of  "falling  from  grace,"  but  to 
write  and  register  the  confession  as  a  doctrine  of 
the  church. 

And  so,  keeping  up  a  pretty  equal  ratio  of  in 
crease  through  the  years  ensuing,  the  Society  has 
gone  on  winning  and  losing,  but,  in  the  long  run, 
gaining  and  growing ;  and  so  it  lives  and  flourishes, 
whether  to  last  for  long  in  the  future,  as  organisms 
of  forced  growth  seldom  can,  or  to  die  out  eventu 
ally,  all  the  sooner  for  the  process,  the  time  to  be 
must  determine. 


24 


THE    PRESBYTERIAN. 


THE    PRESBYTERIAN. 


I. 

OLD    REDSTONE  -  ITS    PEOPLE   AND    ITS    PRESBYTERY. 

OVER  the  top-piece  of  the  door  of  the  old 
house   in  which    he   lived,  in  the    "  Nether 
Bow/'  John  Knox,  the  maker  of  Presbyter  ianism, 
had  caused  to  be  written  this  legend  : 

.  all  *  and  *    w*  .  nichfaw*  .  a 


If  the  distinguished  Scotch  Reformer  had  made 
search  through  all  the  recorded  sayings  of  the  wise 
of  all  ages,  he  could  not,  for  his  purpose,  have  hit 
upon  a  more  comprehensive,  a  better,  or  a  more 
beautiful  precept  If,  as  well  as  across  the  lintel 
of  his  home,  he  could  have  had  the  sentence  in 
scribed  over  the  threshold  of  the  sanctuary  in 
which  he  preached,  and  at  the  same  time  have  made 
its  sentiment  the  governing  principle  of  the  new 
faith  which  it  was  his  choice  to  proclaim,  his  fol 
lowers  would  have  been  none  the  worse  of  it,  and 
himself,  perhaps,  somewhat  the  better.  But  the 
24*  (281) 


282  BLACK-ROBES. 

text  seems  not  to  have  been  understood  according 
to  the  letter  of  its  rendering ;  else  the  First  of 
Presbyterians  could  never  have  merited  tie  epithet, 
scarcely  complimentary,  of  the  "  Iconoclast,"  nor 
his  disciples  have  perpetuated  for  themselves  a 
fame  of  reproach  for  deeds  of  violence  and  vandal 
ism  done  by  their  hands.  Churches  would  not 
have  been  forcibly  entered  and  despoiled;  pictures 
and  images  sacred  to  Christian  worshipers  would 
have  been  spared,  and  monasteries  would  have 
been  exempt  from  sack  and  from  pillage. 

Whatever  tracing  may  serve  for  his  picture  as 
of  to-day, — with  which  this  sketch  has  nothing  to 
do, — one  hundred  years  ago,  when  we  find  our 
"  congregation"alist  drifted  off  from  his  native 
shore  and  anchored  far  away  in  an  inland  wilder 
ness  of  the  New  World,  we  discover  a  likeness  but 
little  altered  from  the  original,  notwithstanding 
generations  had  passed  since  its  angry  population, 
roused  at  the  blast  of  their  prophet's  trumpet,  were 
stirred  to  riotry  in  the  streets  of  Perth,  and  although 
two  centuries  had  elapsed  since  the  Reformer  him 
self  had  ended  his  career  and  been  gathered  to  his 
fathers.  First  among  adventurers  had  he  started 
from  the  settlements  of  his  people  on  the  James 
and  Rappahannock,  and  foremost  among  squatters, 
crossing  the  ridges  of  intervening  mountains  and 
penetrating  to  the  "Yough"  and  Monongahela, 
had  he  hewn  out  his  little  clearing  and  planted  his 
cabin,  on  the  levels  and  slopes  drained  and  made 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  283 

fertile  by  their  floods.  Still  the  legitimate,  unadul 
terated  issue  of  the  race  to  which  he  belonged, 
the  characteristics  of  the  progenitor  were  inherited 
in  the  successor;  his  tough  energies,  eager  to  be 
employed,  seeking  that  occasion  for  exercise 
among  the  savages  which  more  fortunate  forbears 
had  found  in  their  feuds  among  old  neighbors. 

Backwoodsmen  were  "crack  "  men  all,  as  it  well 
became  them  to  be;  but  at  handling  an  axe  or 
poising  a  rifle,  at  leveling  a  tree  or  laying  a  Mingo, 
at  willing  with  a  purpose  and  doing  what  was  to  be, 
whole-heartedly,  till  all  done  and  well  done,  better, 
at  best,  than  the  Scotch-Irish  Presbyterian  wore 
not  buckskin  nor  domiciled  in  logs  on  the  border. 
Did  forests,  dense  and  deep,  encumber  the  ground 
which  he  would  reduce  to  cultivation  ?  Inch  by 
inch  he  hacked  his  way  in  through  the  timber,  till 
patches  at  first  of  fat  soil  growing  into  fields,  then 
widening  into  farms,  were  laid  bare,  and  the  labor 
that  Hercules  might  have  halted  at  was  accom 
plished.  Were  murderous  assaults  essayed  against 
him  by  the  savage  ?  He  was  ready  to  meet  him, 
in  his  own  way  and  on  his  own  terms  :  behind  trees, 
a  hundred  yards  between,  at  "  Hy  Spy," — the  style 
of  dueling  current  in  those  days, — with  a  rifle ; 
openly  and  face  to  face,  at  throwing-distance,  with 
a  tomahawk  ;  or  grip  and  grip,  with  a  knife.  Be 
sieged  in  his  cabin,  he  would  hold  at  bay  his 
score  of  dusky  assailants  outside,  discharging  death 
through  the  loop-holes,  while  his  wife  moulded 


284.  BLACK-ROBES. 

the  bullets  and  his  stripling  son  picked  the  flints ; 
amid  all  comporting  himself  as  composedly  as 
though  a  bull's-eye  were  his  target,  and  a  shooting- 
match  on  an  after-harvest  holiday  the  occasion.  In 
his  lexicon  there  was  no  such  word  as  fear, — no 
such  word  as  fail.  His  practical  belief  was  that 
virtue  goes  by  inheritance,  and  that  with  man,  the 
son,  in  his  degree,  as  with  God,  the  Father,  in  his, 
all  things  were  possible  ;  that,  not  in  a  conditional 
sense  but  an  absolute,  it  was  practicable  to  say  to 
a  mountain,  "  Be  thou  removed,  and  be  thou  cast 
into  the  sea,"  and  to  see  it  done  ;  in  fine,  that  mira 
cles  were  not  mysteries,  but  may-be's, — difficult, 
no  doubt,  of  achievement,  but,  under  a  living  con 
sciousness  of  one's  omnipotence,  feasible. 

But  the  Presbyterian  was  not  only  remarkable 
for  his  qualities  of  faith  and  courage.  All  the 
severer,  or  what  may  be  termed  the  more  strictly 
masculine,  virtues  besides,  were  permeating  ele 
ments,  as  well,  in  his  character.  He  was  honest. 
Averse  to  aught  that  savored  of  disingenuousness 
or  dissimulation, — of  hypocrisy  or  fraud, — his  opin 
ions  were  never  liable  to  misapprehension,  nor  his 
conduct,  if  he  knew  it,  open  to  misconstruction. 
As  he  thought,  he  spake, — "  the  word  the  cousin 
to  the  thing"  always;  as  he  spake,  he  meant;  and 
as  he  meant,  so,  to  the  letter,  he  lived.  He  was 
just.  Accepting  certain  maxims,  hereditary  in  his 
house  since  the  days  of  the  Marys, — or  of  Moses, 
for  that  matter, — as  of  settled  incontrovertibility, 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  285 

he  made  them  the  rule  of  his  reasoning  and  of  his 
judgments.  The  rule  may  have  been  hard,  but 
it  was  wholesome ;  he  could  quote  you  the  text 
for  it,  and  he  was  true  to  the  text.  Wrongs  done 
had  to  be  righted  to  the  fullest  degree  of  compen 
sation.  If  a  man  caused  a  blemish  in  his  neigh 
bor,  as  he  had  done  so  was  it  to  be  done  to  him. 
It  was  bounden  duty  to  duplicate  a  crime — lawfully 
to  perpetrate  over  again  that  which  in  itself  was 
unlawful — in  order  to  atone  for  it;  to  smite  for 
having  smitten ;  to  maim  for  having  maimed  ;  to 
murder  for  having  murdered.  Such  was  his  stand 
ard  of  equity ;  even-handed  assuredly,  and  impar 
tial,  as  was  becoming,  in  accordance  with  the 
economy  of  ancient  dispensation,  in  which  he  de 
lighted,  and  to  which  he  adhered  with  loyal  fidelity. 
So,  examined  strictly  on  each,  down  through  the 
whole  catalogue  of  moralities, — examined,  that  is, 
in  the  light  of  the  olden  ordinances, — he  might  be 
represented  as  of  righteous  reputation  in  all,  unim 
peachable,  irreproachable.  Like  the  young  Judean 
in  the  gospel,  he  knew  the  Commandments,  and 
kept  them.  He  did  not  commit  adultery  ;  he  did 
not  kill ;  he  did  not  steal ;  he  did  not  bear  false 
witness ;  he  defrauded  not ;  he  honored  his  father 
and  his  mother. 

But  there  his  virtues  ended.  Perfect  as  he  strove 
to  be,  and  as,  according  to  the  law,  let  it  be  con 
ceded,  he  was,  yet,  measured  by  the  purer  standard 
of  the  gospel,  was  he  lamentably  wanting.  As  the 


286  BLACK-ROBES. 

law  knew  not  charity,  neither  did  he.  How  could 
he  be  generous  and  at  the  same  time  just?  To 
show  mercy  was,  to  the  extent  of  the  showing, 
without  authority  to  abate  the  punishment  duti 
fully  due  the  offender,  thus  becoming  an  offense 
in  itself.  To  forgive  absolutely  was  to  forget  all 
obligation  and  to  sin  unpardonably.  Under  cloud 
of  such  a  conviction,  he  stood  veiled  impenetrably 
apart,  as  it  were,  from  all  the  warmer,  kindlier, 
brighter  influences  of  heaven.  With  the  tender 
growth  indigenous  to  it  ever  as  it  peeped  to  the 
surface  plucked  up  by  the  roots,  his  heart,  weary 
at  length  of  the  ineffectual  struggle,  ceased  its 
efforts,  sunk  into  unproductiveness,  and  so  re 
mained,  a  blighted,  ruined,  wreck-strewn  waste. 
He  had  no  feeling.  His  nerves  were  steel ;  "  his 
blood  was  very  snow-broth."  Hard,  uncompro 
mising,  compassionless,  the  very  virtue — the  sum- 
mum  jus — in  which  he  gloried,  was  the  vice — the 
summa  injuria — that  told  most  to  his  shame. 

The  Presbyterian  had  a  religious  character  as 
well  as  a  moral ;  not  less  marked, — not  less  thor 
oughly  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the  law, — not  less 
in  accord  with  the  temper  of  the  gospel. 

A  reverend  orator,  now  occupying  a  high  posi 
tion  as  a  theological  teacher  in  a  leading  school  of 
the  sect,  on  a  certain  occasion  once  made  "  Prot 
estantism  "  the  theme  of  a  popular  discourse.  In 
the  discussion  of  his  subject,  he  undertook  to  make 
it  appear  that  the  antagonistic  feature  implied  in 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  287 

its  title  was  the  one  of  highest  order  and  of  most 
praiseworthy  merit  in  the  reconstructed  system  of 
which  he  appeared  as  the  champion, — in  other 
words,  arguing,  upon  the  presumption,  apparently, 
that  whatever  is,  in  religion,  is,  always  has  been, 
and  always  must  be  wrong,  that  therefore  the 
oftener  the  "  protest  "  the  purer  the  profession.  In 
proof  of  his  point  he  started  back  with  the  genesis 
of  history,  quoting  his  examples  from  the  patriarchs 
(strangely  overlooking,  however,  the  still  earlier 
instance  in  the  garden  of  Eden),  and  so,  from  the 
Luther  of  the  Flood,  coming  down,  through  the 
prophets,  the  apostles,  and  the  martyrs,  to  John 
Knox  of  Edinburgh.  Why  he  stopped  short  of 
Beecher — or  Brigham  Young — did  not  satisfac 
torily  appear. 

The  early  religionist  of  the  Monongahela  Val 
ley  was  of  like  mind,  precisely,  with  the  Princeton 
Professor.  His  conviction  seemed  to  be  that  the 
worst  and  most  dangerous  enemy,  if  not,  indeed, 
the  only  one,  which  the  church  had  to  contend 
against,  was  the  church  itself;  that  the  surest  way 
to  prove  a  faith  perfect  was  to  pick  flaws  in  it;  that 
to  point  out  its  weaknesses  was  to  show  its  strength, 
and — coming  down  to  the  practical  belief  at  the 
bottom  of  the  whole — that  to  despitefully  treat  the 
world  of  believers  outside  his  own  elect  circle,  and 
to  cast  contempt  upon  their  usages,  was,  as  the  Nether 
Bow  motto  had  it,  to  "lufe  God  above  all,  and  his 
nichbour  as  himself."  Chiefly  was  it  his  duty  to 


288  BLACK-ROBES. 

protest  against  all,  in  creed,  or  custom,  or  cere 
monial,  that  appertained  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church, — that  Scarlet  Woman,  and  Mother  of 
Harlots  and  Abominations  of  the  earth.  Did  she, 
out  of  deference  to  a  taste  which  she  thought  it 
not  derogatory  to  her  Christian  character  to  gratify, 
build  her  temples  after  an  artistically  ordered  plan, 
and  with  an  eye  to  architectural  beauty?  Turret 
and  spire,  and  arch  and  column,  were  heathenish 
devices,  therefore,  and  decorated  walls  and  carved 
woods  and  dim  religious  lights  idolatrous  inven 
tions,  contrived  to  captivate  the  carnal  sense  and 
allure  infatuated  souls  to  their  eternal  undoing. 
Square  walls  instead,  and  squat  roofs,  inclosing 
interiors  bare,  utterly,  of  ornament,  and  as  dull, 
comfortless,  and  wretched  as  possible,  composed 
the  edifices  of  worship,  presumed  only  to  be  con 
sistent  with  a  proper  idea  of  devotion.  In  the 
observance  of  the  "popish"  Sunday  was  it  lawful  to 
engage  in  such  innocent  diversions  as,  contributing 
to  rest  and  relaxation,  would  make  the  day  one  to  be 
looked  forward  to  eagerly  through  the  week,  and 
to  be  enjoyed  heartily  and  sincerely  when  it  came? 
The  very  idea  of  "  rest,"  in  any  reasonable  sense,  lay 
under  rigid  ban  of  the  "protest."  To  walk  abroad 
in  wood  or  field,  to  sing  (unless  a  psalm  of  Rouse), 
to  read  (except  a  treatise  on  Justification,  or  a  dis 
sertation  on  the  Decrees),  to  talk  (unless  upon 
some  topic  drawn  from  the  Confession  of  Faith), 
to  laugh  from  any  cause,  and,  indeed,  to  eat  (ex- 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  289 

cept  cold  meats  of  Saturday's  cooking),  were  sins, 
one  and  all,  of  rankest  odor,  that  smelt  to  heaven. 
Dispensation  was  granted  for  but  one  indulgence: 
"Monongahela"  was  not  prohibited,  and  the  Pres 
byterian  could  take  his  toddy  when  he  pleased 
—  hot  or  cold  —  without  offense.  For  writing 
hymns  and  singing  them  on  the  Lord's  day,  Zin- 
zendorf,  the  Moravian,  and  his  daughter  were 
arrested  and  fined  in  the  sum  of  six  shillings.  In 
fact,  to  such  an  extent  was  the  reformatory  process 
carried  that  Christ  was  almost  protested  out  of 
Christianity,  and  the  anomalous  but  scarcely  sin 
gular  coincidence  succeeded  of  extremes  meeting, 
and  Gospeler  and  Jew  uniting  on  a  common  basis 
of  belief  and  practice. 

And  yet  the  Presbyterian  was  guilty  of  glaring 
inconsistencies.  He  censured  the  presumption  of 
Rome  in  claiming  to  be  the  only  true  church,  and 
yet  was  quite  as  exclusive  himself,  holding  no 
communion  with  any  one  outside  of  his  own  per 
suasion.  It  was  punishable  misdemeanor  to  attend 
a  Methodist  meeting.  To  refuse  to  have  his  child 
baptized  by  a  "  lawful  minister"  subjected  the  unruly 
member  to  a  fine,  by  way  of  expiation  (for  pardons 
had  their  purchase-price  outside  of  Babylon  as 
well  as  in  it),  of  two  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco. 
It  was  a  cruel,  despotic  wrong,  which  neither  God 
nor  man  could  excuse,  to  burn  John  Rodgers  at 
the  stake,  and  yet  it  was  a  law  "  of  universal  and 
perpetual  equity,"  as  orthodoxy  did  not  hesitate  to 
25 


290  BLACK-ROBES. 

preach,  and  quote  the  Scripture  for  (Deut  xiii.9, 10), 
"to  put  to  death  any  apostate  seducing  idolater  or 
heretic  who  seeketh  to  thrust  away  the  souls  of 
God's  people  from  the  Lord  their  God."  He  con 
tended  for  a  Bible  without  note  or  comment,  in 
sisting  that "  God  was  his  own  interpreter,  and  He 
would  make  it  plain,"  and  yet,  notwithstanding, 
thought  the  "gilt"  of  a  confession  indispensable 
for  the  "refined  gold"  of  the  word,  which  the  be 
liever  was  forced  to  accept  as  solid  coin,  conscience 
or  no  conscience,  on  peril  of  excommunication. 
To  show  reverence  to  the  Cross  through  one  sense 
was  gross  idolatry,  while  to  adore  it  through  an 
other  was  orthodox  and  proper.  He  might  not 
look  upon  that  sacred  emblem  without  sin,  and  yet, 
most  rightfully  and  piously  (but  out  of  the  sanc 
tuary  only  at  first,  until  Rouse,  after  a  convulsion 
that  shook  the  church  to  its  centre,  was  set  aside 
for  the  hymn-book),  he  could  sing,  or  hear  sung, 
"Jesus,  I  my  cross  have  taken,"  or,  "Simply  to 
thy  cross  I  cling,"  or,  "  Here  it  is  I  find  my  heaven, 
while  upon  the  cross  I  gaze."  So  in  his  lighter 
social  occupations  and  amusements.  To  participate 
with  a  lady,  at  a  neighborhood  gathering  of  an 
evening,  in  a  jig,  a  fling,  or  a  hornpipe,  was  scan 
dalously  indelicate  and  immoral,  while  to  "  hold," 
and  to  "bundle,"  as  the  since-discarded  but  then 
all-prevalent  customs  were  on  the  border,  was 
harmless  and  allowable.  A  Virginia  reel  was  a 
"session"able  enormity,  but  a  deacon  might  dance 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN. 


29I 


at  the  selfsame  diversion  under  the  fiction  of 
"Peeling  the  willow," — kiss  his  partner,  too,  at 
the  end  of  it,  if  he  pleased, — and  not  provoke  the 
whisper  of  a  protest. 

The  Presbyterian  could  not  be  charged  with 
negligence  in  the  religious  training  of  his  children. 
While  nurselings  still,  and  ere  able  to  articulate 
the  syllables  of  their  task  distinctly,  they  were 
taught  to  repeat  devoutly,  bent  at  their  mother's 
knees,  or  at  the  bedside,  and  regularly  as  the  hour 
for  retiring  came  with  each  night,  "Our  Father 
which  art  in  heaven."  Nor,  besides,  were  their 
seats  allowed  to  be  vacant  at  the  "  family  exercise," 
when,  morning  and  evening,  that  service  was  con 
ducted,  the  father  reading,  and  copiously  comment 
ing  upon,  some  chosen  portion  of  Scripture,  lead-ing 
in  the  singing  of  a  psalm,  and  delivering  a  prayer 
remarkable  for  its  orthodoxy,  its  legality,  and  its 
length.  On  weekdays  no  additional  observances 
— excepting,  of  course,  the  "grace"  at  meals — 
were  exacted.  Bible  and  psalm-book  were  laid 
carefully  aside  betweenwhiles,  one  upon  the  other, 
in  their  corner,  by  sacred  appropriation,  of  the 
shelf,  balanced  at  the  opposite  end  by  "  Baxter's 
Call  to  the  Unconverted,"  or  "  Alleine's  Alarm," 
and  the  "  Pilgrim's  Progress."  The  moral  obliga 
tion  of  Work  was  tantamount,  in  its  place,  to  the 
spiritual  one  of  Worship,  and,  as  in  one  case  so  in 
the  other,  the  youths  of  the  household  had  to 
take  and  bear  their  proportionate  share.  "  Sab- 


292  BLACK-ROBES. 

bath,"  however,  was  the  day  especially  devoted  to 
educational  purposes.  School-hours  began  before 
breakfast,  and,  without  a  moment  (except  a  stolen 
one)  of  intermission  or  relaxation,  were  continued 
until  bedtime.  Study,  close,  hard,  dry,  as  incom 
prehensible  subject-matter  could  make  it,  was  the 
inflexible  law,  submission  to  which,  enjoined  by 
parental  authority,  was  enforced  by  such  threaten- 
ings  of  divine  indignation  for  neglect  as,  striking 
terror  to  the  soul  of  the  pupil,  proved  all-sufficient 
to  insure  it.  The  discipline  was  stringent,  but  it 
was  effective  ;  so  effective  that  scarce  a  boy  or  girl 
of  "  evangelical  "  begetting  was  to  be  found  on  the 
border  but  that,  with  Madge  Wildfire,  could  say 
"  the  single  carritch,  and  the  double  carritch,  and 
justification  and  effectual  calling,  and  the  Assem 
bly  of  divines  at  Westminster,"  through  each  par 
ticular  "  act "  and  "  work,"  and  prohibition  and  re 
quirement,  from  cover  to  cover,  without  a  stumble. 
Fifty-two  good  whole  days  at  cramming  out  of 
three  hundred  and  sixty-five,  repeated  year  after 
year  until  the  student  had  attained  a  parental  age 
and  relation  himself,  ought  to  have  left  him  at  the 
end  quite  competent  to  pass  examination.  And  it 
did.  He  understood  all  mysteries  and  all  knowl 
edge  quite  as  well  as  Paul, — perhaps  a  little  better. 
Indeed,  so  complete  was  his  theological  schooling 
— so  thoroughly  (to  put  it  in  another  shape)  had 
he  familiarized  himself  with  the  sinuosities  and  cir- 
cuities  of  his  channel  of  passage  to  the  celestial 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN. 


293 


shores — that  he  felt  himself  entirely  qualified  to 
sail  his  own  craft;  as  he  would  have  attempted 
and  been  perfectly  content  to  do,  only  for  the  fact 
that  the  law  of  the  line,  in  which  he  was  a  share 
holder  and  by  which  he  voyaged,  demanded  the 
services  of  a  professional  pilot  at  the  helm.  To 
preside  in  the  pulpit,  to  pronounce  the  benediction, 
to  administer  the  sacraments,  must  be  done,  ac 
cording  to  statute,  by  the  minister,  licensed,  called, 
and  ordained  for  the  discharge  of  those  offices. 

The  settlement  of  Western  Pennsylvania  may  be 
said  to  date  from  1752,  when  Christopher  Gist,  with 
eleven  other  pioneers  and  their  families,  chose  out 
places  and  built  them  cabins  at  what  is  known 
as  Mount  Braddock,  lying  west  of  the  Youghio- 
gheny,  and  about  midway  between  Connellsville 
and  Uniontown,  in  Fayette  County.  The  early 
emigrants  were  exposed  to  sufferings  that  made 
their  lot  a  sorely  trying  one.  The  forests  were 
infested  with  roving  bands  of  savages,  armed  with 
knife  and  rifle,  and  abroad  everywhere  for  mas 
sacre  and  plunder.  Who  stepped  beyond  the 
threshold  of  his  door  went  out  at  the  peril  of  his 
life.  Men  were  slain  in  the  fields ;  women,  as 
they  went  to  the  springs  for  water,  were  seized 
and  butchered  or  carried  captive  into  the  wil 
derness.  Dwellings  were  burned,  property  was 
destroyed  or  stolen,  and,  in  short,  disasters  and 
misfortunes  visited  upon  him  so  sweeping  and  dis 
heartening  as  might  well  have  served  to  deter  the 

25* 


294  BLA  CK~R  OBES. 

borderer  from  a  new  attempt  to  establish  himself 
in  so  inhospitable  a  region.  But  the  iron  will  of 
the  Covenanter,  used  in  other  lands  to  maintain 
itself  under  hardest  pressure  of  adversity,  was  not 
of  a  texture  likely  to  yield  to  the  circumstances, 
grievous  as  they  were,  of  his  new  situation. 
Crushed  to  earth,  he  rose  again.  Out  of  the  ashes 
of  his  ruin  sprang  up  himself  in  certain  reappear 
ance,  with  the  finer  perfumes  of  his  nature  lost, 
perhaps,  like  a  rose  subjected  to  a  similar  process, 
but  with  his  other  perfections  purified  rather  than 
impaired  in  the  palingenesis.  Miraculous  energy 
such  as  this  was  sure  to  win  in  the  end.  The 
savage,  wearying  at  length  of  his  unsuccessful 
efforts  at  dislodging  his  enemy,  ceased  his  raids, 
and  the  pioneer  was  left  in  undisturbed  possession 
of  his  home.  Hostilities  suspended,  adventurers 
who  had  not  cared  to  share  the  perils  of  the  border 
while  they  lasted,  took  heart  of  the  fact,  and  began 
to  follow  as  their  predecessors  had  led.  Emigrant 
after  emigrant  gathered  in;  clearings  multiplied; 
cabin  after  cabin  was  built,  until  at  length,  of  a 
still  summer  twilight,  house-dog  baying  to  house 
dog,  the  chain  of  responses  linked  across  the  roll 
ing  lands  to  Old  Redstone, — to  Turkey-foot, — to 
Catfish  ;  and  down  the  valleys  of  the  Youghio- 
gheny  and  Monongahela  to  the  little  "  Manor," 
that  lay — with  a  destiny  in  store  for  it  of  which  the 
loiterers  in  and  about  it  did  not  dream — wedged  in 
between  its  rivers,  a  hundred  miles  below,  under 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  295 

the  guns  of  old  Fort  Pitt.  As  early  as  1763,  at  the 
close  of  the  French  War,  the  settlements  had  a 
population  of  four  thousand  souls. 

At  this  time  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  East 
began  to  turn  4ts  attention  to  the  West.  A  meet 
ing  of  the  Synod  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia, 
down  till  1789  the  supreme  judicatory  of  the  church, 
was  held,  when,  the  condition  of  the  "  distressed 
frontier  inhabitants"  being  taken  into  considera 
tion,  it  was  resolved  to  send  out  two  ministers  on 
a  tour  of  inspection  among  them.  The  Reverend 
Messrs.  Beatty  and  Brainerd  were  nominated  for 
the  mission.  According  to  their  report,  offered 
before  Synod  at  its  next  meeting  (1764),  they  were 
providentially  prevented  from  fulfilling  their  ap 
pointment,  "  the  whole  design  of  the  mission  being 
entirely  frustrated  by  the  breaking  out  of  the  In 
dian  [Pontiac's]  war."  Two  years  later  (1766)  the 
appointment  of  Mr.  Beatty,  with  Mr.  Duffield  for 
his  colleague  on  this  occasion,  was  renewed.  The 
savages  having  abandoned  their  designs  on  Fort 
Pitt  and  retired  beyond  the  Ohio,  the  journey 
could  be  taken  with  entire  safety,  and  the  two  rev 
erend  gentlemen  started  on  it  accordingly.  At  the 
fort  they  were  politely  received  by  Captain  Mur 
ray,  the  commandant,  who  gave  them  places  at  his 
table,  provided  them  with  rooms,  and  furnished 
them  with  beds,  so  that,  "on  the  whole,"  as  a  his 
torian  of  the  times  relates,  "they.were  as  comfort 
able  as  could  be  expected."  After  a  flying  visit  to 


296  BLA  CK-ROBES. 

the  Muskingum,  they  returned  home,  the  whole 
tour  consuming  some  six  or  eight  weeks.  No  par 
ticular  results  are  recorded  as  growing  out  of  the 
mission.  Messrs.  Cooper  and  Brainerd  were  next 
commissioned  for  the  service,  "to- spend  at  least 
three  months  on  the  frontier;"  but,  in  consequence 
of  ".discouraging  accounts  brought  in  by  the  inter 
preter,  Joseph,"  they  declined  to  act.  Mr.  Ander 
son,  shortly  afterwards,  was  proposed  to  take  the 
field  "for  twelve  Sabbaths,"  at  twenty  shillings  a 
Sabbath ;  but  it  does  not  appear  from  the  records 
that  he  ever  went.  Mr.  Niles,  the  next  appointee, 
"  failed  through  sickness."  Other  emissaries,  such 
as  Finley  (1771), — who  took  advantage  of  the  trip 
to  buy  himself  a  good  tract  of  land  in  Fayette 
County,  —  Craighead,  and  King  (1/72),  Foster 
(1775)  and  Carmichael  (1776),  were  ordered  out  on 
transient  visits,  certainly  one  (Finley),  and  possibly 
two  of  whom,  complied,  although  without  seeming 
to  have  accomplished  anything  worthy  of  men 
tion  ;  and  thus  terminated  the  efforts  of  the  church 
towards  the  planting  of  the  Faith  on  the  border. 

Late  in  the  year  1776  a  little  band  of  journeyers 
might  have  been  seen  pursuing  patiently  the  way 
by  which  the  descent,  on  its  western  slope,  of 
Laurel  Hill  is  made.  The  track  they  followed  was 
that  opened  up  twenty  years  before  by  the  unfor 
tunate  British  officer  who,  alas !  never  lived  to 
trace  it  all  back  .again,  and  which  was  long  after 
wards  known,  in  association  with  that  disastrous 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  297 

expedition,  as  "  Braddock's  Trail."  A  man  in  the 
prime  of  life,  with  his  oldest  .daughter,  still  a  girl, 
behind,  and  his  youngest,  a  child,  pillowed  before 
him  on  a  horse,  led  the  way,  closely  followed  by 
his  wife,  riding  like  himself  and  leading  still  another 
horse,  on  either  side  of  which,  packed  snugly  in 
creels  or  baskets  slung  across  the  animal  and  fast 
ened  securely  to  the  pack-saddle,  were  deposited 
the  two  remaining  children  of  the  family.  Thus, 
one  day  in  the  darksome  month  of  November,  de 
scended  into  the  valley  of  the  wilderness  JAMES 
POWER,  who  enjoys  the  distinction  among  Presby 
terians  of  having  been  first  of  the  Black-Robes  of 
their  order  to  establish  himself  among  the  settlers 
of  the  border  and  "aid  in  laying  the  foundations 
of  the  western  Zion."  Mr.  Power  undertook  this 
mission  not  by  appointment  of  the  church,  but  on 
his  own  motion,  prompted  to  it,  without  doubt, 
precisely  as  was  any  other  emigrant  of  the  time, 
by  the  attractive  prospects  of  the  new  region,  with 
its  fields  of  plenty  and  of  promise,  opened  up  and 
reaching  forth  invitingly  for  occupation.  Indeed, 
except  that  we  hear  somewhat  vaguely,  of  his 
having  baptized  a  child  for  Mr.  Marquis,  at  Cross 
Creek,  in  1778,  there  is  no  positive  evidence  that 
he  pursued  his  profession  at  all,  in  any  regular 
way,  for  several  years  after  his  arrival.  On  the 
contrary,  the  date  of  his  first  settlement  and  ser 
vice  as  a  preacher  (at  Mount  Pleasant)  is  fixed  by 
Dr.  McMillan  as  late  as  1781. 


298  BLACK-ROBES. 

In  the  mean  time  the  congregations  of  the 
frontier,  left  altogether  uncared  for,  and  beginning 
to  realize,  as  we  have  seen,  the  necessity  of  church 
organization,  decided  to  take  up  the  work  and 
carry  it  through  on  their  own  account.  Meetings 
were  held  accordingly.  As  the  result,  on  the 
2 1st  of  June,  1779,  a  Call  was  made  out  from  the 
"  United  Congregations  at  Buffalo  and  Cross  Creek, 
to  the  Rev.  Joseph  Smith,  a  member  of  the  Pres 
bytery  of  New  Castle."  The  Call  set  forth  "the 
great  loss  youth  sustain  by  growing  up  without  the 
stated  means  of  grace,  the  formality  likely  to  spread 
over  the  aged,  and  the  great  danger  of  ungod 
liness  prevailing  amongst  both :  there  being  divers 
denominations  of  people  among  us"  (Ommishes, 
or  Dunkards,  Quakers,  and  Seventh-day  Baptists) 
"who  hold  dangerous  principles,  tending  to  mis 
lead  many  weak  and  ignorant  people."  Submission 
was  pledged  to  the  "  due  exercise  of  discipline," 
and  a  salary  promised  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds,  or  rather,  according  to  the  summing  up 
of  the  subscription  paper  accompanying  the  Call, 
something  over  a  hundred  and  ninety-seven  pounds, 
Pennsylvania  currency,  "money  to  be  made  equal 
in  value  to  what  it  was  in  the  year  1774,"  before 
the  depreciation  in  that  class  of  paper  took  place. 
Among  others  in  the  list  of  subscribers  occur  the 
names  of  Andrew  Poe  and  Adam  Poe,  the  famous 
brothers  whose  daring  adventures  furnish  the  ma 
terial  for  many  a  thrilling  story  of  the  border.  The 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN. 


299 


Call  was  accepted,  and,  in  the  year  following,  Mr. 
Smith,  along  with  his  family,  planted  himself  per 
manently  within  the  bounds  of  one  of  his  parishes. 
Near  about  the  same  time  the  churches  at  Lower 
Ten-Mile  and  Upper  Ten-Mile,  each  distant  from 
the  town  of  Washington  the  space  intimated  by 
their  titles,  fell  under  the  pastoral  care  of  Thad- 
deus  Dodd,  who  had  bought  and  was  cultivating 
a  farm  in  the  neighborhood ;  while  John  McMil 
lan,  more  noted  as  a  "  doctrinal  examiner  and  in 
structor  "  than  as  a  preacher,  took  charge  of  the 
congregations  at  Chartiers  and  Pigeon  Creek. 
With  these  four  reverend  gentlemen  for  its  mem 
bers,  the  old  Presbytery  of  Redstone  was  organ 
ized  (1781),  the.  creed  of  the  Catechisms  established, 
and  the  general  enginery,  invented  at  Edinburgh, 
put  in  motion,  by  which  backwoodsmen  were  to  be 
trained  how,  evangelically  and  soundly,  to  "luff 
God  above  all,  and  their  nichbour  as  themselves." 


II. 

THE    PARSON    OF   SEVENTY-FIVE   YEARS    AGO. 

A  SKETCH  of  the  Presbyterian  Black-Robe  of 
the  olden  time,  to  represent  its  subject  faith 
fully,  calls  for  but  little  variation  in  the  general 
outline  from  the  picture  already  presented  of  the 


300  BLA  CK-R  OSES. 

layman  of  his  persuasion.  Their  features  in  the 
main  were  the  same,  save  that  in  the  case  of  the 
officer  they  were  more  definitely  traced,  and  be 
trayed  a  deeper  and  more  determined  outline  of 
development,  than  in  the  subordinate.  Passing 
through  the  same  preparatory  training,  yielding 
under  persistent  pressure  to  the  same  constraints, 
that  which,  taking  its  bent  accordingly,  hardened 
eventually  into  a  habit  with  the  latter  and  ended 
there,  went  on,  attaining  a  still  more  vigorous  and 
overshadowing  growth,  until  it  matured  into  a.  pro 
fession,  with  the  former.  As  a  teacher,  or  preacher, 
following  his  vocation  up  on  a  chosen  line,  it  be 
came  him — of  course  it  would  become  him — to 
magnify  that  line,  to  show  its  superiority  over  all 
other  lines,  and  by  emphatic  protestation  of  his  own 
unlimited  confidence  in  the  singular  and  exclu 
sive  advantages  of  it,  to  win  over  customers  from 
competing  routes.  Very  naturally,  as  a  result,  his 
preaching  turned  chiefly  on  the  points  of  differ 
ence  ;  his  religion  became  a  religion  of  reason,  and 
himself  the  orator,  conscientious,  earnest,  obstinate, 
as  schoolmen  always  are,  of  its  philosophy.  Mir 
roring  that  philosophy  all  the  while,  his  own  mind 
caught  and  held  fast  the  likeness  of  what  it  re 
flected,  so  that  at  last  it  became  a  fixed  impres 
sion,  felt  to  the  core  of  his  being  and  picturing  all 
the  surface  of  his  character. 

As  the  expounder  of  its  ordinances,  the  Law  was 
with  him  the  subject  of  absorbing  study.     It  was 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  301 

his  meditation  all  the  day;  its  testimonies  were  his 
delight.  He  measured  his  steps  by  it;  he  ordered 
his  thoughts  according  to  it;  he  believed,  he 
hoped,  he  preached,  he  sung,  he  prayed  by  it. 
The  straitest  among  the  "most  straitest"  of 
Jewish  sects,  in  the  tight  days  when  the  Pharisees 
wore  broadest  their  phylacteries,  could  not  have 
adhered  with  a  truer  or  more  exact  fidelity  to  its 
precepts.  Its  demands  admitted  of  nothing  short 
of  plenary  and  absolute  satisfaction.  "Thus  saith 
the  Lord"  settled  the  question,  and  was  an  extin 
guisher  upon  all  controversy, — a  choke-off  against 
whatever  plea  the  sufferer  under  it  might  propose 
to  offer  in  abatement  of  the  decree  pronounced. 
Hence,  where  the  heart  of  the  layman  under  like 
influences  was  as  flint,  that  of  the  Black-Robe  be 
came  as  adamant.  The  springs  of  compassion  that 
should  have  had  source  in  his  bosom,  were  dried 
up.  "  He  had  no  juice  but  that  was  verjuice  in 
him." 

Of  such  a  mould,  one  is  in  no  wise  surprised,  in 
following  up  his  history,  to  discover  that  in  all 
cases  of  civil  disturbance,  when,  upon  one  provo 
cation  or  another,  mutinous  men  were  banded 
together  to  achieve  violently  the  correction  of 
alleged  causes  of  complaint,  the  disciple  of  the 
Iconoclast  was  leadingly  identified  with  the  move 
ment.  Among  the  terrible  incidents  of  border 
times,  that  of  the  planned  attack  in  the  night.on 
a  cluster  of  Indian  huts  on  the  Conestoga  Creek, 
26 


302 


BLACK-ROBES. 


when  the  unconscious  slumberers  were  crept  in 
upon  and  "  shot,  stabbed,  and  hacked  to  death," 
and  which  was  but  the  beginning  of  a  continued 
series  of  outrages,  has  a  dark  and  sorrowful  promi 
nence.  The  Paxton  Boys  who  did  it,  and  who,  the 
blood  of  their  shedding  still  red  and,  reeking  on 
their  hands,  quoted  Scripture  in  justification  of  its 
doing,  were  organized  in  his  own  parish  and  from 
among  his  own  parishioners,  by  one  Presbyterian 
preacher,  and  defended  afterwards,  when  all  was 
over,  as  men  "humane,  liberal,  and  moral,  nay,  re 
ligious,"  by  another.  Reverend  penmen  who  have 
written  their  narratives  of  olden  events,  naturally 
anxious  to  defend  the  good  reputation  of  the  "  mis 
sionaries"  from  the  reproach  of  having  had  either 
heart  or  hand  in  Tom  the  Tinker's  rising,  assert 
that  no  sympathy  was  felt  for  the  malcontents  by 
the  Black-Robes ;  on  the  contrary,  that  they  op 
posed  the  movement  "  strenuously  and  success 
fully."  The  scene  of  insubordination  lay  within 
the  bounds  of  what  had  then  become  (1794)  the 
Synod  of  Virginia.  A  party  of  soldiers  on  their 
way  out  to  aid  in  suppressing  the  insurrection,  ar 
rived  in  the  town  of  Harrisonburg,  where,  at  the 
time,  the  Synod  was  in  session.  The  occasion 
seemed  to  call  for  an  expression  of  loyalty,  and,  on 
the  motion  of  one  of  the  members,  an  address  to 
the  people  was  proposed,  "  inculcating  obedience 
to.the  laws  of  the  country."  The  prevailing  senti 
ment  of  the  body,  as  a  lively  discussion  soon 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN. 


303 


revealed,  was  that  "there  were  wrongs  to  be  re 
dressed,  rather  than  a  rebellion  to  be  suppressed." 
A  vote  being  taken,  the  address  was  rejected, 
and  Tom  the  Tinker  had  the  indorsement  of 
the  Synod. 

In  like  manner,  as  respected  questions  affecting 
the  interests  of  humanity, — where  Charity  which 
knew  not  law,  on  the  one  side,  stood  advocate 
as  against  the  Law  that  knew  not  charity,  on  the 
other, — the  attitude  of  the  Presbyterian  was  just 
what,  according  to  his  code  and  creed,  it  could 
not  but  have  been.  In  his  own  time  he  was  the 
patron,  as  his  church  after  him  was  the  apologist, 
— not  to  use  a  stronger  term, — of  slavery, — the  per 
severing  apologist,  down  until  the  Samaritans  out 
side,  with  whom  it  had  no  dealing,  interposed  to 
rid  the  nation  of  the  curse.  He  "  could  not  say 
that  slavery  was  a  sin,  without  charging  the  apos 
tles  of  Christ  with  conniving  at  it."  So  he  was 
ready  to  testify,  as  half  a  century  later  his  profes 
sional  successors  through  their  General  Assembly 
did  testify,  and  as  often  afterwards,  in  much  less 
moderately  chosen  terms,  was  ratified  by  many  a 
divine,  who  perhaps  would  scarcely  care — possi 
bly  might  blush — to  own  it  now.  For  criminals 
doomed  to  punishment  he  manifested  no  symptom 
of  mercy,  no  showing  of  compassion, — unless  the 
offer  of  his  ghostly  services  at  the  sharply-closing 
crisis  of  their  career,  in  extreme  cases,  might  be 
so  construed.  Penance  to  the  full  extent  of  the 


304  BLACK-ROBES. 

award  must  be  had,  without  easement,  curtailment, 
or  commutation, — as,  in  like  manner,  was  de 
manded  by  the  justice-loving  Jew  of  Venice  ;  as,  in 
like  manner,  has  been  insisted  upon  by  the  clerical 
of  his  own  sect  ever  since  and  until  now.  A  move 
ment  was  made,  not  many  months  ago,  having  in 
view  the  doing  away  with  capital  punishment  in 
the  State  of  Pennsylvania.  While  the  project^was 
pending,  a  paper  was  prepared  and  sent  forward  to 
the  legislature  from  the  judicatory  of  one  of  the 
branches  of  the  church  (the  "  United  Presbyterian"), 
then  in  session  at  Pittsburg,  praying  against  the 
proposed  change,  as  prompted  by  mistaken  notions 
of  humanity,  and  as  in  direct  contravention  to  the 
law — not  of  Christ,  although  affirmed  as  "  of  God," 
but — of  Moses. 

His  ideas  of  conversion  were,  of  course,  in  har 
mony  with  his  views  of  belief.  Faith  had  its  phi 
losophy,  which  the  would-be  partaker  of  its  benefits 
must  be  thoroughly  drilled  in  before  he  could  hope 
to  enjoy  the  saving  advantage  of  its  exercise.  The 
poor  sinner  of  the  gospel  whose  all  of  confession 
was  comprehended  in  two  simple  words,  sufficient 
as  they  seem  to  have  been  in  his  day,  would  not 
have  found  them  equal  to  the  emergency  of  his 
case  under  the  later  schedule  of  conditions :  "Pisteuo 
Kurie  /"  would  scarcely  have  carried  him  past  the 
pickets,  to  get  where  he  is  gone,  by  way  of  the 
Redstone  Presbytery.  He  must  have  first  been 
led  to  understand  that  he  was  made  a  partaker  of 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  305 

the  redemption  purchased  by  Christ  by  the  effectual 
application  of  it  to  him  by  the  Holy  Spirit ;  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  applied  this  redemption  by  work 
ing  faith  in  him,  and  thereby  uniting  him  to  Christ 
in  his  Effectual  Calling ;  that  Effectual  Calling  was 
the  work  of  God's  Spirit,  whereby,  being  convinced 
of  his*  sin  and  misery,  having  his  mind  enlightened 
in  the  knowledge  of  Christ,  and  his  will  renewed, 
he  would  be  persuaded  and  enabled  to  embrace 
Jesus  Christ ;  and  that  thus,  at  length,  being  Effect 
ually  Called,  he  would  partake  of  justification, 
adoption,  and  sanctification,  the  benefits  of  which 
were  peace  of  conscience,  increase  of  grace,  and 
perseverance  therein  to  the  end. 

The  ''enlightening"  operation  could  be  consid 
ered  as  a  success  only  by  the  overcoming  before 
hand  of  obstacles,  minutely  specified  and  elabor 
ately  described  by  journalists  of  the  time,  who 
went  through  with  it,  and  which  were  wellnigh 
insuperable.  There  were  the  difficulties  of  the 
"  Imputation  of  Adam's  Sin  to  his  Posterity,"  the 
"Strictness  of  the  Divine  Law,"  the  fact  that 
"  Faith  alone  was  the  Condition  of  Salvation,"  and 
numerous  others  over  which  the  seeker  must  pass 
necessarily,  and  at  which  it  was  inevitable  that  he 
should  stumble, — not  to  mention  the  experience, 
indispensable  besides,  of  a  "  Sufficient  Weanedness 
from  the  World,"  and  of  the  "  Mortification  of  in 
dwelling  Corruption,"  before  he  could  expect  to 
gain  "  evidence  of  serious  and  comfortable  exer- 
26* 


306  SLA  CK-R  OSES. 

cise."  The  satisfaction  which  followed  the  enlight 
enment  was  of  its  own  kind,  and  quite  peculiar  to 
the  Presbyterian  subject.  Moses  Tinda  Tautamy, 
the  converted  Indian  interpreter  of  Brainerd,  in  his 
moments  of  enthusiasm  used  to  testify,  "  that  he 
never  felt  better  pleased  than  when  his  heart  echoed 
to  the  soul-humbling  doctrines  of  grace,  and -when 
he  heard  of  the  absolute  sovereignty  of  God,  and 
the  salvation  of  sinners  in  a  way  of  mere  free 
grace."  A  refreshing  experience  it  must  have 
been,  certainly. 

A  "  call  "  for  the  ministry,  while  not  claimed  as 
having  been  made  through  special  and  miraculous 
revelation  of  himself  by  the  Almighty,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Methodist,  was  still  viewed  as  of  super 
natural  prompting;  the  Deity  indicating,  not  in 
an  ostensible  way,  but  through  the  secret  con 
sciousness  of  the  subject,  his  election  to  the  sacred 
office.  That  God  had  a  choice,  and  that  this  one 
or  that  one  out  of  the  multitude  of  less  worthy 
vessels,  on  some  account  or  other,  which  often 
puzzled  the  inquirer  to  determine,  had  been  par 
ticularly  ticketed  for  distinction,  was  assumed  as  a 
matter  of  course.  The  election,  although  usually 
signified  to  the  favored  subject  himself  directly, 
was  not  unfrequently,  however,  the  result  of  ar 
rangement  entered  into  with  responsible  parties 
before,  and,  in  fact,  as  a  condition  of,  his  existence. 
He  was  made  to  order,  as  it  were ;  expfessly  to  fill 
a  place  for  which,  amonj  all  the  living  ready-made, 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  307 

the  fitting  substitute  was  not  to  be  found.  One  of 
the  members  of  the  Old  Redstone  Presbytery  thus, 
we  are  informed,  on  their  pledge  that  he  should 
be  dedicated  to  the  ministry,  was  granted  to  his 
parents,  "  like  Samuel  and  John  of  old,"  in  answer 
to  special  prayer. 

But  the  mere  "  call  "  was  not  enough  to  entitle 
the  candidate  to  an  assumption  at  once  of  the 
functions  of  the  priestly  office.  A  previous  course 
of  training,  really  indispensable  to  a  complete 
mastery  of  the  difficult  mysteries  of  his  faith,  was 
required ;  embracing  in  its  order  a  thorough  study 
of  the  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew  languages.  Con 
sequently,  whatever  may  have  been  his  position 
with  regard  to  information  derivable  from  other 
alien  sources,  in  his  own  literature,  or  that  of  his 
church,  he  was  well  schooled.  The  distinctive 
dogmas  of  his  communion,  which  he  was  taught 
to  respect  as  its  most  sacred  properties,  were  the 
subjects  upon  which  it  was  his  duty  to  be  accu 
rately  informed.  As  the  sinners  among  whom  it 
must  be  his  destiny,  following  along  the  border,  to 
direct  his  missionary  labors,  would  consist  chiefly 
of  Quakers,  Sabbatarians,  Baptists,  and  Methodists, 
he  must  not  only  hold  correct  views,  but  be  able 
to  defend  them,  of  Original  Sin,  Election,  Pedo- 
baptism,  and  Perseverance.  Familiarity  with  the 
scriptural  languages  prepared  him  not  merely  to 
grapple  with  doctrine  in  the  naked,  as  it  were,  but 
armed  him  besides  with  the  means  of  hopelessly 


3o8  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

confounding  the  adversary  with  whom  he  had  to 
deal ;  for  while  the  Arminian  and  the  Immersionist, 
from  frequent  hearing  of  controversies  common  to 
the  time,  had  caught  and  could  toss  back  again 
their  single  stray  terms  of  "  original,"  their  Pres 
byterian  antagonist  in  return  could  overwhelm 
either,  or  both,  with  whole  sentences  of  dumb- 
foundering  quotation. 

Testimony  must  be  borne  to  the  fact  that  the 
Presbyterian  was  always  the  faithful  friend  and 
zealous  promoter  of  education.  The  Methodist  him 
self,  contemptibly  ignorant  as  he  was, — conscious 
of  it,  too,  and  glorying  in  it, — recognized,  in  the 
very  attempt  of  affecting  to  despise,  this  feature  of 
excellence  in  his  Calvinistic  rival.  Scarcely  had 
he  planted  himself  in  his  new  parishes  on  the 
border,  when  he  began  to  turn  his  attention  to  that 
interest.  Rev.  Joseph  Smith,  appreciating  the  want 
which  all  the  neighborhood  experienced,  but  had 
not  the  enterprise  to  remedy,  determined  to  take 
the  correction  of  it  in  charge.  Consulting  first  his 
wife,  and  having  secured  her  "  cordial  acquies 
cence,"  he  set  apart  a  new  kitchen  which,  as  an 
appendage  to  his  house,  he  had  just  built,  and,  at 
Upper  Buffalo,  in  1785,  opened  in  it  a  classical 
school,  the  first  of  the  kind  in  the  West,  com 
mencing  duty  with  three  young  men,  Messrs.  Mc- 
Gready,  Porter,  and  Patterson,  for  his  pupils.  In 
1791—2  the  institution  was  transferred  to  Canons- 
burg,  erected  into  an  academy,  and  by  appoint- 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  309 

ment  of  the  Synod  of  Virginia,  who  assumed  the 
control  of  it,  left  for  management  in  the  hands  of 
the  Rev.  Dr.  John  McMillan.  The  establishment 
grew  in  favor,  increased  in  patronage,  and  acquired 
a  wider  and  wider  renown,  until,  under  charter  of 
the  State,  as  Jefferson  College,  in  1802,  it  took  its 
place  among  the  leading  seminaries  of  the  land. 

And  yet,  sorrily  irreconcilable  with  such  tutor 
age  as  it  would  seem,  the  Presbyterian  Black-Robe 
was  decidedly  —  confessedly — superstitious.  As 
between  his  own  views  on  this  point  and  those  of 
his  Wesleyan  brother,  he  made  the  distinction, 
where  it  is  difficult  to  detect  the  difference,  that 
whereas  the  latter  claimed  the  manifestations  with 
which  he  was  honored  as  of  express  matter-of-fact 
revealment  from  heaven,  his  were  referable  to  "  a 
strong  and  firm  persuasion"  flowing  from  an  ex 
traordinary  "  liberty  and  enlargement  of  soul."  The 
Rev.  Joseph  Smith  lay,  as  was  supposed,  at  the 
point  of  death.  Mr.  Edgar,  a  warm  personal  friend, 
was  hastening  to  wait  upon  him  in  his  extremity, 
when,  as  he  approached  the  house,  he  met  an  old 
lady  who  was  considered  in  her  neighborhood  as 
a  "  Mother  in  Israel."  Mr.  Edgar's  first  natural 
inquiry  had  reference  to  the  condition  of  his  sick 
friend.  "He  is  worse,"  said  the  Mother;  "but  he 
will  not  die,  for  the  Lord  hath  told  me  to-day  that 
He  will  raise  him  up,  and  send  him  out  to  the 
West  to  preach  the  gospel ;"  and,  continues  the 
reverend  writer  who  has  made  memorandum  of 


3io 


BLACK-ROBZS. 


"this  singular  but  well-authenticated  fact,"  he 
began  to  recover  from  that  very  hour.  This  same 
ministerial  gentleman  with  his  wife  was  returning 
from  a  walk,  one  evening,  about  sundown,  when,  in 
a  wood  near  the  town  where  they  dwelt,  "  they 
both  distinctly  heard  strains  of  sweet  and  melo 
dious  music  over  the  tops  of  the  trees,  that  seemed 
to  them  to  rise  and  float  away  into  the  distant  skies." 
It  was  interpreted  "  as  under  a  special  providential 
direction,  and  designed,  as  without  doubt  it  served, 
to  encourage  and  cheer  them  in  the  prospect  of 
setting  out  at  no  distant  day,  with  their  family  of 
helpless  children,  to  the  western  wilds."  It  did  not 
weaken  the  supernatural  aspect  of  the  case  that  a 
band,  in  a  military  encampment  some  distance  off, 
was  known  as  a  regular  custom  to  serenade  the 
closing  day ;  but  it  did  surprise  the  historian,  as 
he  states  in  a  foot-note,  that  so  excellent  a  writer 
as  Dr.  Mosheim  should  sneeringly  speak  of  "the 
pious  sort  of  mistake"  that  Christians  sometimes 
make  in  interpreting  a  "  happy  coincidence"  into 
a  special  interposition  of  Providence.  A  son  of 
the  Rev.  James  Finley,  one  of  a  party  of  twenty 
men,  was  waylaid  and  attacked  by  a  band  of  sav 
ages.  A  sharp  skirmish  took  place.  Finley,  the 
force  to  which  he  belonged  being  worsted  and 
beginning  to  retreat,  found,  when  he  wanted  to  fire 
as  he  ran,  that  his  gun  would  not  "go  off,"  stopped 
to  pick  his  flint,  and,  doing  so,  fell  behind  his  com 
panions.  An  Indian  leveled  his  rifle  at  him,  but 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  311 

before  he  could  fire  was  luckily  shot  down.  A 
few  moments  later,  by  a  happy  dodge,  he  succeeded 
in  throwing  one  of  his  comrades  between  himself 
and  a  pursuing  red-skin,  and  so  escaped,  but  at  the 
expense  of  the  life  of  the  comrade,  who  was  in 
stantly  tomahawked  by  the  enemy.  At  the  same 
hour,  as  a  comparison  of  time  instituted  afterwards 
made  to  appear,  the  father  of  young  Finley,  three 
hundred  miles  off,  felt  a  "strange  and  unaccount 
able  impression"  that  his  son  was  in  imminent 
danger  of  some  sort,  and  immediately  "betook 
himself  to  intense  and  agonizing  prayer"  for  the 
boy.  He  continued  this  exercise  for  some  time, 
until  at  length  "  he  felt  relieved  and  comforted,  as 
though  the  danger  was  past."  Finley,  the  senior, 
regarded  the  escape  as  a  special  providence.  How 
the  father  of  the  son  who  was  elbowed  back  and 
got  brained  instead  esteemed  it,  we  are  not  in 
formed. 

After  the  expiration  of  his  academical  term,  the 
pupil  was  transferred  to  some  minister,  under  whose 
private  instruction  he  pursued  his  strictly  theologi 
cal  studies;  Dr.  McMillan's  lectures  being  his  text 
book,  with  such  collateral  authorities  besides  as 
the  clerical  libraries,  within  reach  of  borrowing, 
afforded.  This  system  of  private  tuition — a  neces 
sity  of  the  time — had  its  advantages.  The  student 
enjoyed  the  undivided  care  and  attention  of  the 
teacher.  What  was  required,  by  olden  usage  in 
the  church,  to  be  learned,  he  had  to  learn,  and  to 


312  BLACK-ROBES. 

learn  well.  There  could  be  no  shirking  of  duty, — 
no  skipping  over  of  half- mastered  tasks.  Ready 
to  lend  assistance  when  assistance  was  needed,  the 
instructor,  nevertheless,  expected,  and  taught  his 
disciple  to  expect,  that  the  burden  of  achievement 
should  rest  on  his  own  shoulders,  and  that  if  he 
would  bear  him  worthily  up  under  the  pressure, 
and  carry  him  palmily  through,  it  must  be  mainly 
by  his  own  efforts.  The  consequence  was  that  the 
close  of  his  apprenticeship  found  him  well  prepared 
for  service,  and  possessed,  very  naturally,  of.  the 
fullest  confidence  in  his  own  sufficient  ability  to 
assume,  and  capably  to  wield,  the  responsibilities 
of  his  office.  But  the  system  had  its  drawback. 
Presbyterianism  was  not  born  in  a  manger,  nor 
saluted  in  its  cradle  with  the  songs  that  angels  are 
wont  to  employ  at  the  Nativities  over  which  they 
rejoice.  Sprung  from  a  conjunction  of  the  tem 
poral  with  the  spiritual,  its  character  discovered  a 
pretty  evenly-balanced  share  of  the  family  marks 
of  both.  If  it  appeared  with  an  olive-branch  in  one 
hand,  it  came  armed  with  a  sword-blade  in  the 
other.  Its  seel  in  church  became  its  party  in  state, 
for  one,  or  the  other,  or  both  of  which,  it  could 
either  fight  or  pray,  as  inclination  prompted  or  as 
the  contingency  invited.  Politics  and  "persuasion" 
were  woof  and  warp  of  one  piece,  and  the  whole 
cloth  was  its  religion.  That  its  "  professors," 
therefore,  and  particularly  its  preachers,  moved 
by  both  these  powerfully  constraining  influences, 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  313 

should  have  manifested  a  devotion  perhaps  with 
out  a  parallel — certainly  without  its  like — to  their 
creed,  is  not  astonishing.  Time  did  not,  neither 
could  change  of  scene  or  surrounding,  of  country 
or  of  circumstance,  alter  the  cast  of  their  con 
science,  or  qualify  their  conviction,  or  modify  their 
confession.  As  in  the  beginning,  so  to  the  end, 
they  were  "  True  Blue"  all  the  time.  The  master- 
•graduate  taught,  and  the  student  learned:  learn 
ing,  in  his  turn  he  taught  again ;  so  that,  handed 
down  from  generation  to  generation,  the  theology 
that  was  promulged  in  the  Nether  Bow  was  per 
petuated  in  the  study  of  the  Redstone  Presbyter. 
As  the  result,  the  pupil  came  out  from  his  cloister 
well  disciplined,  truly,  in  the  tenets  of  his  church, 
but  so  impregnated  with,  and  habituated  to,  its 
"  doctored"  atmosphere  as  to  doubt,  if  not  disbe 
lieve  entirely  in,  the  presence  of  a  healthy,  life- 
supporting  presence  at  all  in  any  other. 

Thus  he  was  outfitted  for  duty,  and  so,  commis 
sioned,  went  he  forth  to  fill  his  professional  place 
in  the  service, — a  redoubtable  champion  surely,  as 
his  Methodist  cotemporary  was  willing  to  concede, 
but  view-contracted,  arrogant,  and  intolerant,  as  the 
same  authority,  by  way  of  complement,  and  with 
an  emphasis  decidedly  more  to  his  relish,  was  also 
prompt  to  testify. 

27 


314 


BLACK-ROBES. 


III. 

THE     SABBATH-DAY,    AND    HOW     IT    WAS    SANCTIFIED. 

BEFORE  the  Black-Robe  had  thought  it  pru 
dent  to  attempt  a  permanent  settlement  among 
them,  the  borderers,  not  willing  to  await  his  coming 
at  the  expense  of  a  total  deprivation  of  the  privi 
leges  of  worship,  had  long  been  accustomed  to 
observe  the  stated  assemblings  of  themselves  to 
gether  for  "  exercise "  on  the  Sabbath.  These 
"  societies,"  as  they  were  called,  were  held  in  the 
•private  dwellings  of  such  families  as  chose  to 
offer  the  accommodation,  alternating  from  one  to 
another  in  regular  rotation,  and  were  conducted 
usually  by  an  elder ;  the  ordinary  routine  of  ser 
vices  being  followed,  except  that  a  select  reading 
of  some  appropriate  sort  took  the  place  of  a  ser 
mon,  and  that  the  delivery  of  the  benediction,  as 
well  as,,  of  course,  the  administration  of  the  sacra 
ments,  was  dispensed  with.  Houses  of  worship 
began  to  be  erected  perhaps  as  early  as  1790.  In 
their  construction  they  differed  in  no  particular 
from  the  cabins  of  the  settlers,  only  in  the  re 
spect  that  they  were  somewhat  larger.  A  few 
hours'  labor  was  the  cheap  cost  of  their  erection. 
Timber  necessary  for  the  purpose  had  but  to  be 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  315 

felled,  cut  the  desired  length,  notched  at  the  ends, 
laid,  log  upon  log,  in  place,  covered  with  clap 
boards,  and  the  sun  that  at  its  rising  saw  the  axe 
laid  at  the  roots  of  the  standing  trees  out  of  which 
the  work  was  to  be  made,  witnessed  at  its  setting 
the  laying  of  the  last  "  weight-pole"  that  kept  the 
clap-boards  of  the  roof  in  position  and  finished 
the  job.  For  ordinary  Sabbath-day  use  the  meet 
ing-house  answered  the  purpose  well  enough.  In 
summer-time,  when  the  heat  was  oppressive  within 
doors,  and  on  sacramental  and  other  special  occa 
sions,  when  the  attendance  was  unusually  large, 
services  were  conducted  in  the  open  air.  Nearby 
the  meeting-house,  on  the  slope  of  a  gently-rising 
hill,  a  plot  of  ground  was  marked  off,  from  which 
the  underbrush  was  cleared  away  and  the  trees  cut 
down,  with  the  exception  of  here  and  there  an  oak 
or  a  maple  of  imposing  growth,  left  to  lift  its  wide- 
spreading  branches  as  a  shelter  against  tbe  sun. 
The  space  "thus  opened  was  laid  with  logs,  or  slabs, 
arranged  in  parallel  order  across  the  ascent  of  the 
slope,  and  designed  to  serve  as  seats  for  the  con 
gregation.  At  the  lower  extremity  of  this  area  a 
platform  was  erected,  six  or  eight  feet  wide  by  ten 
or  twelve  in  length,  and  about  four  from  the  ground 
at  the  front.  This  platform  was  boarded  up  nearly 
breast-high  above  its  floor,  entrance  to  it  being  had 
by  means  of  a  short  flight  of  steps  and  through  a 
doorway  left  open  at  one  side,  while  the  whole  was 
covered  with  a  roofing  of  slabs.  Intended  as  a 


BLACK-ROBES. 


pulpit  for  the  minister,  this  structure  went  by  the 
name,  along  the  border,  of  the  "  Tent,"-  —  a  title  still 
preserved  as  applied  to  one  of  the  oldest  churches, 
near  Uniontown,in  Fayette  County,  for  many  years, 
and  down  to  the  date  of  his  death,  under  the  pas 
toral  care  of  that  amiable  gentleman  and  most  loyal 
Presbyterian,  the  Rev.  Dr.  A.  G.  Fairchild. 

The  meeting-houses  were  about  as  comfortless 
as  it  was  possible  to  have  them.  The  walls,  some 
times  "chunked  and  daubed,"  sometimes  not, 
allowed  of  a  free  passage  of  air  between  the  logs, 
the  bitter  blasts  of  which,  on  winter-days,  told  with 
tingling  effect  on  the  ears,  the  noses,  and  the  un 
gloved  ringers  of  the  worshipers.  Stoves  were  not 
permitted  in  the  building.  Physicians  objected  to 
them  on  hygienic  principles,  while  professors  op 
posed  them  as  devices  of  the  devil,  designed  to  pro 
duce  a  feeling  of  ease  in  Zion,  and  thus  to  rob  the 
believer  of  the  benefit  of  a  flesh-afflicting  but  soul- 
chastening  experience.  Certain,  among  the  women 
especially,  of  the  congregation,  either  doubting 
the  efficacy  of  the  penance,  —  "cross"  they  called 
it,  —  or  scarcely  tough  enough  to  endure  it,  and 
willing  to  risk  the  consequences,  were  accustomed 
to  heat  stones  in  the  nearest  cabin  fires,  or  fill  jugs 
with  boiling  water,  and  to  convey  them  clandes 
tinely,  carefully  wrapped  in  a  fold  of  their  gowns,  to 
their  seats,  where  laid  upon  the  floor  they  served 
to  keep  the  feet  warm  at  least,  let  the  rest  of  the 
person  fare  as  it  might.  For  ten  or  twelve  years 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN. 


317 


this  singular  practice  was  persisted  in;  and  when 
at  length  a  change  was  proposed,  and'  by  a  close 
vote  of  the  congregations  the  use  of  fire  was 
formally  authorized,  it  was  at  the  cost  of  an  oppo 
sition  so  violent  as  to  threaten,  while  it  lasted,  the 
complete  disruption  of  the  churches. 

No  Sabbath-day  duty  was  more  strictly  enjoined 
upon  the  people  than  that  of  regular  and  prompt 
attendance  at  public  worship.  As  the  appointed 
hour  of  service  drew  nigh,  they  might  be  seen  filing 
in  along  the  paths  that  led  Tent-ward  through  the 
woods,  some  afoot,  others  on  horseback, —  the 
riders,  if  fathers,  with  an  elder  son  or  daughter, 
sometimes  both,  mounted  behind  them,  or,  if 
mothers,  studded  all  around  with  the  smaller 
family  jewels, — a  babe  in  the  arms,  last  year's  twins 
in  creels,  one  on  each  side  of  the  "  beast"  bestrad- 
dled,  and,  perched  en  croupe,  the  promising  three- 
year-old  of  the  household  closely  hugging  the 
maternal  waist,  as  a  dependence  both  needed  and 
relied  upon  to  maintain  the  mastery  of  his  situa 
tion.  The  husband  rode  in  advance  of  the  wife. 
Arrived  at  the  outskirts  of  the  sanctuary  precinct, 
or  edge  of  the  uncleared  woods,  the  former  dis 
mounted,  and,  after  fastening  his  horse  with  a  tie  of 
the  raw-hide  hitching-strap  attached  to  its  bridle, 
doubly  knotted  and  carefully  tested,  to  a  sapling  or 
the  lower  branch  of  a  tree,  turned  to  look  to  the 
making  fast,  in  like  manner,  of  that  of  the  latter, 
who,  meanwhile,  drawing  rein  at  the  side  of  a 
27* 


318  BLACK-ROBES. 

stump  for  the  easier  execution  of  the  task,  had, 
alone  and  unassisted,  succeeded  in  safely  landing 
herself  and  the  entire  of  her  infant  impedimenta  in 
charge.  Here,  too,  the  pedestrians — the  younger 
folk  generally  of  the  settlements — halted  as  they 
came,  the  men  ostensibly  to  interchange  neigh 
borly  greetings  with  each  other,  but  more  likely, 
as  observing  ones  among  the  elders  shrewdly  sus 
pected,  to  cast  sly  glances  askant  at  the  girls,  who, 
having  walked  barefoot  from  their  homes,  to  save 
the  wear  and  tear  of  leather,  took  advantage  of  the 
partial  screen  afforded  by  the  bushes  to  draw  on 
the  stockings  and  shoes  with  which,  wrapped  up 
in  handkerchiefs  and  carried  under  their  arms,  for 
wearing  at  "  meeting,"  as  the  mannerly  custom 
was,  they  had  not  failed  to  come  provided. 

The  ascent  of  the  minister  into  the  pulpit  was 
the  signal  for  the  congregation  to  assemble.  So 
berly  and  solemnly  the  members  advanced,  the  men 
and  the  wftmen  falling  into  separate  lines,  and,  with 
very  much  the  air  of  prisoners  moving  to  their 
doom,  marching  down  the  aisle  or  passage  dividing 
the  auditory,  these  filing  to  the  right  and  those  to 
the  left, — for  it  was  not  lawful  that  the  sexes  should 
worship  together, — and  edging  in  between  logs  as 
they  went,  until  all  were  seated.  Among  the 
attendants,  however,  were  not  a  few  who  preferred 
to  decline  the  offered  accommodations  of  the 
sanctuary.  These  were  composed  of  the  less  rev 
erent  youths  of  the  parishes,  upon  whom  the  reins 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  319 

of  discipline  were  not  so  tightly  drawn  at  home  as 
they  should  have  been,  much  to  the  detriment  of 
their  proper  deportment  abroad,  and  of  a  sort  of 
Arab  ^lass  wandered  in  from  the  mountains, — men 
with  unshorn  beards,  shaggy  heads,  and  faces  hard 
as  iron  and  brown  as  its  rust, — who,  disliking  close 
quarters,  were  not  to  be  drawn  into  a  crowd  when 
free  elbow-room  could  be  had  outside  of  it.  Hold 
ing  back,  near  enough  to  hear  and  to  see,  but  clear 
of  the  consecrated  limits,  they  stationed  themselves, 
leaning  indolently  against  the  trees  or  lolling  at 
half-length  on  the  ground.  Both  classes — all  of 
the  one,  and  many,  that  is,  of  the  other — came 
furnished  with  powder-horns  and  bullet-pouches, 
and  armed  with  rifles ;  the  latter,  because  it  was 
the  regular  habit  of  their  lives,  from  which  they 
never  deviated,  and  the  former,  really,  perhaps,  to 
be  ready  for  any  chance  shot  that  might  offer  at  a 
wild  turkey  or  a  deer  on  the  way,  but  professedly  for 
the  more  orthodox  purpose  of  protecting  the  con 
gregation  against  surprise  from  the  Indians, — who, 
by  the  way,  so  far  as  we  are  informed,  never  offered 
to  interfere  with  them.  In  fact,  if  they  had  been  so 
inclined,  much  the  easier  and  safer  plan,  as  well  as 
the  one  more  in  accordance  with  their  style  of 
doing  things,  would  have  been  to  waylay  the 
church-goers  singly  and  separately  on  the  road  to 
and  from — rather  than  in  a  body,  watchful  and  ex 
pectant,  at — the  Tent. 

After  a  short  introductory  invocation,  the  exer- 


320  BLACK-ROBES. 

cises  of  the  day  were  opened  .with  the  singing  of  a 
psalm.  Recited  first  at  length  from  the  pulpit,  the 
task  was  taken  up  immediately  after  by  the  pre 
centor,  or  clerk,  an  officer  second  perhaps,  but 
only  second,  in  importance  to  the  minister,  who 
occupied  a  seat,  constructed  for  his  exclusive  use, 
right  under  the  sacred  desk.  The  stanzas  were 
delivered  line  by  line  by  this  officer,  who  had  his 
professional  way  of  doing  it,  commencing  at  a 
pitch  perhaps  a  fifth  above  the  natural  key  of  his 
voice,  drawling  out  the  syllables  in  a  sort  of  sing 
song  recitative,  and  so  regulating  the  intonation 
as  to  leave  the  last-spoken  word  at  the  pitch  pre 
cisely  with  that  of  the  note  next  in  order,  whatever 
it  might  be,  in  the  suspended  melody.  So  nicely 
were  the  two  renderings  dovetailed  into  each  other 
that  they  might  have  passed  as  solo  and  refrain,  or 
chant  and  response,  of  one  musical  performance. 
In  his  selection  of  an  air  the  clerk  had  a  dozen  out 
of  which  to  choose.  These  were  known  as  the 
"Twelve  Tunes  of  David,"  copies  of  which,  care 
fully  produced  in  angular  "characters  variously 
shaped  to  indicate  the  different  notes  (fa,  sol,  la,  mi) 
of  the  gamut,  and  elaborately  illuminated  as  to  the 
text,  were  among  the  properties  of  all  competent 
precentors.  To  these  melodies  the  faithful  adhered, 
and  to  the  exclusion  of  all  others,  with  scrupulous 
fidelity.  Later  down  a  few  years,  when,  captivated 
by  their  novelty,  some  of  the  more  daring  among 
the  leaders  undertook  to  introduce  certain  "fugue 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  321 

tunes,"  caught  up  from  emigrant  Yankees  passing 
through  on  their  way  to  Marietta, — like  "  Corona 
tion,"  for  instance,  which,  by  the  way,  became  im 
mensely  popular  soon  after, — the  attempt  excited 
intense  opposition,  and  for  some  time,  like  the  stove- 
question,  threatened  seriously  a  downright  schism 
in  the  churches.  The  first  plunge  into. the  melody 
was  made  by  the  clerk  alone,  the  voices  of  the 
congregation  dropping  in  one  upon  another  in 
after-succession  with  an  effect  which,  while  it 
increased  the  volume,  so  retarded  the  progress  of 
the  music  that  it  required  the  fullest  exertion  of 
the  lung-power  of  the  leader,  always  chosen  with 
special  reference  to  his  superior  qualities  of  chest, 
to  keep  the  chorus  up  to  time,  or  anything  like  it. 
The  style  of  singing  was  unique.  The  rendering 
of  the  lines  proper  was  prefaced  by  a  snatch  of 
nasal  "  voluntary" — so,  for  lack  of  a  better  term,  to 
distinguish  it — closely  resembling  the  prolonged 
sounding  of  the  closing  consonants  of  the  present 
participle, — ng, — and  not  unlike  the  drone  of  a  bag 
pipe  before  the  stops  are  operated  upon.  Fairly 
plunged  into  the  text,  the  task  of  struggling 
through  went  on,  word  mortising  into  word,  note 
gliding  through  vague  and  wayward  flights  into 
note,  until  the  end  of  the  passage  was  reached. 
Usually,  almost  uniformly,  in  fact,  at  first,  the  con 
gregation,  men,  women,  and  children,  all  sang  in 
unison,  following  in  various  octaves  the  air  of  the 
melody.  Now  and  then  a  clerk,  happily  possessed 


322  BLACK-ROBES. 

of  more  accomplished  parts  than  distinguished  the 
general,  would  veer  off  into  the  base;  but  the  diver 
sion  was  not  often  attempted,  arrd  was  prudently 
limited  to  the  few  closing  notes  of  the  verse  ;  when, 
in  the  case  of  misadventure,  ticklishly  probable,  in 
the  experiment,  the  stop  of  the  strain  would  cleverly 
cover  up  the  failure.  Later  on,  about  the  time  of 
the  introduction  of  the  fugue  tunes,  the  singing  of 
"parts"  began  to  be  introduced  ;  in  the  apportion 
ment  under  the  new  order  of  arrangement,  the  men 
sustaining  the  air,  and  the  women,  or  detachments 
of  them,  serving  on  the  "  tribble,"  answering  to  what 
is  known  in  these  later  days  as  the  tenor.  Parceled 
off  in  this  way,  the  effect  maybe  more  readily  con 
ceived  than  described  of  the  singing  of  a  hymn  like 
Mear  or  Dundee,  the  burden  of  it  borne  by  the 
multitudinous  baritone  of  one  side  of  the  congre 
gation,  and  the  accompaniment,  in  soprano,  by  the 
other;  the  voices  of  these  latter  soaring  at  a  giddy 
height  among  the  "  fifths"  (making  their  escape 
chiefly  through  the  nose),  and  maintaining  that 
elevation,  with  as  little  variation  as  a  decent 
respect  for  the  harmonies  permitted,  down  to  the 
very  close, — quieting  lingeringly  and  reluctantly 
into  silence  even  then. 

The  psalm  ended,  a  "  portion  of  Scripture"  was 
read,  selected  usually  either  from  the  Old  Testament 
or  the  Epistles  of  the  New,  each  verse  of  the  chapter 
so  chosen,  in  its  order,  undergoing  a  close  analysis 
and  critical  exposition,  rather  more  to  the  edifica- 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN. 


323 


tion  than  to  the  entertainment  of  the  congregation. 
This  exercise  was  fallowed  by  a  prayer,  particu 
larly  worthy  of  mention  on  account  of  its  length, 
— often  consuming  thirty  minutes  or  more  in  the 
delivery;  its  breadth, — covering  all  subjects  con 
ceivably  within  the  scope  of  desire,  except  those, 
perhaps,  that  appear  in  "  Our  Father"  in  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount ;  and  its  depth, — penetrating  to  the 
very  bottom  of  profoundest  doctrines,  and  defining 
according  to  Westminster  science,  and  making 
clear  so  as  to  come  within  the  comprehension  of 
their  Author,  the  dark  and  difficult  significance  of 
his  own  mysteries.  After  the  prayer  came  the 
second  psalm  of  the  service.  This  praise-offering 
differed  from  the  first  in  that,  as  read  from  the 
sacred  desk,  and  before  being  taken  hold  of  by 
the  clerk,  it  was  subjected,  sentence  by  sentence, 
to  a  searching  note-and-comment  process  by  the 
preacher.  The  special  aim  of  this  labor  was  to 
show  the  "  evangelical"  character  of  David  the 
Hebrew,  and  to  illustrate  how  eminently  appro 
priate  for  devotional  purposes  in  a  Christian  meet 
ing-house  was  the  psalmody  composed  for  priestly 
rehearsal  in  a  Jewish  synagogue. 

But  the  sermon,  next  in  order,  was  the  feature 
of  the  service.  If  the  people  felt  it,  as  they  evi 
dently  did,  to  be  so,  so,  still  more  evidently,  did 
the  minister.  Having  the  scriptural  authority  to 
that  effect,  it  was  his  duty,  as  well  as  his  delight, 
"to  magnify  his  office;"  and  as  the  sermon,  best, 


3  24  BLA  CK-R  O£ES. 

if  not  alone,  of  the  round  of  exercises,  afforded 
a  ready  range  for  the  purpose,  he  made  the  most 
of  the  chances,  in  it  and  attending  it,  to  do  that 
justice  to  himself  and  his  profession.  After  the 
singing  of  the  psalm,  the  pause  of  a  moment  or 
two,  usually  occurring  between  performances,  was 
allowed  to  lengthen  out  materially,  the  parson 
consuming  the  interval,  very  much  at  his  leisure, 
and  with  a  quiet  show  of  preparation  that  was 
very  impressive,  in  turning  over  the  leaves  of  his 
Bible,  dog-earing  a  page  here  and  there  for  con 
venience  of  reference,  or  producing  and  assorting 
his  notes,  or  (although  this  was  less  ostentatiously 
done)  in  fortifying  the  inner  man  with  a  draft  of 
sufficient  cordial  from  the  little  brown  jug  that 
seldom  was  wanting  in  its  own  appropriate  nook 
behind  the  breast-board  of  the  pulpit.  These  pre 
liminaries  disposed  of,  to  the  desired  effect  of 
stimulating  the  attention  and  whetting  the  ex 
pectation  of  his  listeners,  he  arose  to  his  feet, 
stripped  himself  of  his  coat,  if  the  day  happened 
to  be  warm,  and  in  his  shirt-sleeves  stepped  for 
ward  to  his  place  at  the  desk.  Inviting  the  atten 
tion  of  his  hearers,  he  then  announced  his  text, 
indicating,  first,  the  book,  chapter,  and  verse,  and 
again,  the  more  certainly  to  impress  it  upon  the 
congregation,  the  verse,  chapter,  and  book,  re 
versely,  where  it  was  to  be  found.  Promptly,  in 
return,  each  member  of  the  flock  produced  his 
own  private  copy  of  the  Bible,  with  which  he 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  325 

always  came  provided,  and,  with  a  sound  like  the 
rustle  of  leaves  stirred  by  a  summer  wind,  or  the 
flutter  of  birds'  wings  as  a  flight  of  them  is  about 
to  light  among  the  branches,  turned  over  the  pages 
in  search  of  the  passage,  to  make  sure  that  it  was 
rendered  true  to  the  letter  in  the  reading.  As 
among  the  sacred  writers,  the  lawgiver  and  the 
prophets  stood  first  in  the  esteem  of  ministers,  the 
epistolary  authors  next,  and  the  evangelists,  rather 
distantly,  last.  The  sayings  of  our  Lord,  as  gathered 
from  his  lips  and  as  recorded  in  the  books  of 
Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John,  were  of  account 
certainly,  but  of  account  only  as  they  tallied,  or 
could  be  made  to  seem  to  tally,  with  the  utter 
ances  of  Moses  or  the  mystical  vaticinations  of 
Isaiah,  or  as  they  stood  the  test  of  the  criticisms 
of  Paul.  Out  of  these  higher  authorities,  there 
fore,  it  was  the  favorite  custom  of  the  preacher  to 
choose  his  subject  of  discourse.  In  the  treatment 
of  his  topic  he  followed  the  old  regular  routine  of 
his  fathers  in  the  profession, — setting  forth  the 
same  proposition  in  the  same  terms,  pursuing  the 
same  line  of  argument  in  the  same  methodical 
manner,  quoting  the  same  proofs  in  defense  of  the 
same  positions,  and  arriving,  through  the  same 
series  of  heads,  sub-heads,  inferences,  and  practical 
observations,  at  the  same  conclusions ;  very  much 
in  the  same  manner,  with  the  same  degree  of  anima 
tion,  and  to  the  same  convincing,  and  about  the 
same  spirit-cheering,  effect  that  would  have  at- 
28 


326  BLA  CK-R  OSES. 

tended  the  attempt,  had  it  been  made,  at  a  solution 
of  a  question  in  calculus,  or  one  of  the  more  intri 
cate  of  the  problems  of  Euclid.  To  go  through  with 
all  this  called  for  time,  so  that,  although  one  and 
a  half  and  two  hours  sometimes  sufficed,  three 
were  not  regarded  as  an  extraordinary  allowance 
for  the  performance  The  audience  lingered  out 
the  siege  with  more  than  the  patience  that  could 
have  been  expected.  If  the  elders  of  the  congre 
gation,  when  their  backs,  which  were  without  sup 
port,  grew  weary,  and  the  crook'd  hinges  of  their 
knees  became  cramped  from  long  sitting,  rose  to 
their  feet  during  the  service,  it  was  only  tojelax 
their  joints  with  a  walk  to  window  or  door,  if  in 
the  meeting-house,  or  simply  to  stand  for  sake 
of  change,  if  on  the  Tent-ground,  resting  them 
for  a  time  against  sill  or  jamb  in  the  one  case,  or 
leaning,  still  listeningly  and  devoutly,  with  palms 
planted,  hand  over  hand,  on  the  knotted  heads  of 
their  stout  hickory  walking-sticks,  in  the  other. 
The  younger  hearers  kept  up  a  wakeful  attention 
as  long  as  they  could,  the  better  to  sustain  them 
at  it  nibbling  the  while  at  shreds  and  ends  of 
slippery-elm  bark,  peppermint,  and  sassafras-root, 
or  gnawing  at  bits  of  biscuit.  But  even  these 
expedients  spent  their  virtue  ere  long,  when,  after 
many  a  nod  dropped  more  and  more  decisively, 
followed  by  as  many  a  less  and  less  alarmed  start 
of  recovery,  the  drowsy  influence  prevailed,  and 
the  captured  senses  settled  into  a  repose  that  was 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  327 

thenceforth  to  know  no  balk  nor  break  through 
all  the  dull  while  the  sermon  lasted.  The  women, 
less  restless  than  the  men,  if  not  quite  so  attentive, 
sat  the  performance  out  with  the  perseverance  of 
saints.  If  the  day  proved  warm  and  the  atmosphere 
close,  they  employed  their  folded  handkerchiefs 
as  fans,  or,  unprovided  with  those  conveniences, 
the  leafy  extremities  of  the  slender  twigs  which 
they  had  used  on  their  way  to  "  meeting"  to  brush 
off  the  flies  from  the  necks  and  the  flanks  of  their 
horses.  But  for  this  exercise  as  a  counter-recourse, 
the  influences  together  of  weather  and  "word" 
would  have  been  insupportable,  and  the  strongest 
of  flesh,  the  most  willing  of  spirit,  must  have  sunk 
exhausted  under  them.  Except  the  mothers — not 
a  few,  nor  far  between-times  freshly  in  that  way — 
among  them ;  in  which  case  tired  nature  found  a 
sufficient  diversion  in  the  frequently-recurring  at 
tentions  required  by  their  nurslings,  whose  crav 
ings  and  whose  necessities  had  to  be  cared  for,  of 
course, — as  they  were,  right  openly,  and  without 
a  thought  of  impropriety,  in  the  presence  of  the 
whole  congregation. 

Meanwhile  a  spirit  of  impatience,  in  smart 
contrast  with  the  forced  repose  of  the  people, 
began  to  manifest  itself  among  the  "beasts," 
standing  hitched  in  close  neighborhood  to  each 
other,  along  the  outer  lines  of  the  Tent-ground. 
Fagged  by  the  toils  of  the  Sabbath-day's  journey 
that  brought  them  there  ;  with  hanging  heads,  and 


328  BLACK-ROBES. 

drooping  ears,  and  eyes  half  closed ;  leaning  their 
weight  on  three  legs  for  the  relief  of  the  remaining 
one,  loosely  depending  and  resting  at  ease  on  the 
toe,  as  it  were,  of  its  hoof;  showing  scarcely  a  sign 
of  life,  except  an  occasional  quiver  of  the  skin  on 
flank  or  foreshoulder,  to  shake  off  the  flies  that 
swarmed  about  them  when  they  became  too  an 
noying, — the  drowsy  animals  had  stood  out  the 
opening  services  in  a  well-behaved  and  most  or 
thodox  manner.  But  rest,  in  due  time,  wrought  its 
work,  and,  rousing  from  the  dreamy,  indolent  mood 
into  which  they  had  settled,  the  creatures,  refreshed, 
were  now  themselves  again.  Wearying  soon  from 
idleness,  as  before  from  exercise,  they  became  rest 
less  and  fretful;  switching  their  tails  at  the  trouble 
some  insects  whose  stinging  assaults  were  no  longer 
to  be  passively  endured,  stamping  their  feet,  and 
swinging  round  their  heads  with  great  stretches, 
sometimes  to  the  very  shank  of  a  hind-leg,  lifted  to 
shorten  the  effort,  to  bring  their  teeth  to  bear  re- 
lievingly,  or  their  noses,  upon  some  particularly 
irritated  spot  of  attack.  Hitched  to  neighboring 
trees,  pairs  of  cross-grained  geldings,  on  terms  of 
forbearance  hitherto,  seeming  to  have  discovered 
sudden  cause  of  misunderstanding,  threw  back 
their  ears,  made  dashes  with  open  teeth  at  each 
other,  and,  finding  their  career  checked  by  the 
tightened  tether  before  quite  within  nipping  dis 
tance,  reversed  their  tactics,  and,  turning  rear  to 
rear,  with  angry  screams  joined  skirmish  with  their 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  329 

heels.  Mares,  appearing  to  have  awakened  all  at 
once  to  the  consciousness  of  their  absence,  began 
to  call,  in  tones  indicative  of  alarm,  for  their  off 
spring.  Prompt  at  the  summons,  the  colts,  bleat 
ing  as  they  ran,  came  racing  from  abroad  in  the 
woods,  whither  they  had  wandered ;  in  the  confu 
sion  attending  the  common  rush,  making  for  the 
wrong  dams,  and  meeting  with  such  repulses,  when 
they  began  to  make  themselves  at  home,  as  to  send 
them  skipping  away,  their  mouths,  the  while,  going 
through  the  motions,  but  without  the  voice — too 
completely  shocked  by  surprise  to  find  it — of  a 
protest  at  the  unmotherly  treatment.  Stallions, 
stationed  prudently  at  more  distant  posts,  caught 
the  contagion  of  excitement,  champed  their  bridle- 
bits,  pawed  the  ground  madly  with  their  feet, 
tramped  in  circles  round  and  round  the  saplings 
to  which  they  were  tied, — winding  themselves  up, 
and  then  unwinding  back  again,  in  the  process, — 
leaped,  now  with  plunges  that  made  their  straight 
ened  raw-hide  fastenings  twang  to  cracking  fairly 
under  the  strain,  now  stood  with  lifted  crest  in 
breathless  pause,  now  gave  vent  to  their  suspended 
respiration  in  a  blast  through  their  nostrils,  sharp 
and  shrill  as  the  shriek  of  a  trumpet,  and  now 
crowned  the  proceeding  with  a  neigh,  long,  and 
fierce,  and  loud,  that  sped  pealing  and  reverberating 
abroad  till  the  forest  rang  in  all  its  shelters,  far  and 
near,  with  the  echo. 

Amid   all   these    untoward    circumstances,   the 
28* 


330  SLA  CK-R  OSES. 

minister,  wholly  unconscious,  or  at  all  events  re 
gardless,  of  them,  proceeded  with  his  discourse.  It 
was  the  sinner's  own  affair  whether  he  would  hear 
or  whether  he  would  forbear;  but  as  for  himself, 
it  was  his  business  to  preach,  and,  like  a  faithful 
servant,  once  entered  upon  his  task  he  was  bound 
to  see  it  through.  Holding  fast  to  the  line  of  his 
argument,  step  by  step  plodding  along  he  followed 
it  up.  If  the  sound  of  his  voice  happened  to  be  lost 
for  a  time,  swallowed  up  by  a  wave  of  tumult  rolled 
in  from  the  disturbed  verge  of  the  camp,  no  matter ; 
a  proof  missed,  more  or  less,  of  the  proposition,  for 
instance,  that  "all  mankind  sinned  in  Adam  and 
fell  with  him  in  his  first  transgression,"  left  the 
elucidation  of  it  none  the  less  complete  on  that 
account.  Told  over  and  over  so  often,  his  people 
had  heard  the  story  to  little  purpose  if  now  they 
were  to  lose  the  chain  of  it  by  the  simple  dropping 
of  a  link.  And  so  the  work  went  on,  slowly,  steadily, 
surely, — one  great  section  of  it  after  another  dis 
sected,  desiccated,  and,  as  was  proper  with  the  meat 
of  doctrine,  made  dried-beef  of  to  insure  its  keep 
ing,  ere  laid  at  length  away;  and  so,  like  the 
"going — going—  gone"  of  an  auctioneer,  followed 
the  warning  calls,  delivered  with  the  due  delays 
between,  of,  "  In  the  last  place, — finally, — in  conclu 
sion,"  when  with  the  closing  thump  of  "Amen!"  the 
hammer  fell,  and  the  sermon  was  ended.  A  prayer, 
long  enough,  but  brief  compared  with  the  one  that 
went  before  it,  succeeded,  followed  by  a  psalm, 


THE  PRESS  YTERIAN.  3  3 1 

after  which  the  benediction  was  pronounced,  and 
the  morning  service  closed. 

Dismissed,  the  congregation  slowly  retired  in 
close  procession  from  their  seats,  scattering,  when 
quite  outside  the  precincts  of  the  sanctuary,  in 
various  directions.  Some  went  to  look  after  their 
horses,  to  see  that  they  had  not  slipped  their  head 
stall,  and  that  their  fastenings  were  secure;  or, 
perhaps,  to  "  piece"  them  on  nubbins  of  corn, 
brought  along  in  their  pockets  for  that  purpose, 
just  as  on  the  same  grain,  ground,  and  baked  into 
"  dodgers,"  did  the  mothers  their  children,  and 
from  the  same  tenderly  considerate  motive.  Some 
withdrew  in  pairs,  or  groups  of  three  and  four,  and, 
seeking  the  shade  of  a  tree,  whittled  with  their 
heavy-bladed,  horn-handled  jack-knives  at  the 
tough  knots  on  their  walking-sticks,  talking  the 
while  of  the  weather  and  the  crops;  of  the  flocks 
and  herds  that  filled  their  pastures, — their  hogs, 
their  cattle,  and  their  horses, — and,  as  likely  as 
not,  going  through  the  preliminary  negotiations  of 
a  "swap,"  which  to-morrow  or  next  day  would  see 
consummated,  before  all  was  over.  Some  retired 
to  the  graveyard,  picking  their  course  along  path 
less  ways,  wading  knee-deep  in  heavy,  rank  grasses, 
and  forcing  a  passage  through  thickets  of  thorn  and 
patches  of  blackberry-bushes  to  the  spot  of  their 
search,  where,  pausing  and  leaning  over  the  rough 
stone  planted  to  mark  the  place,  they  paid  their 
tribute  of  sorrow  to  the  memory  of  some  loved  one, 


332  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

— husband,  or  wife,  or  child, — whose  all  of  what 
once  had  been  left — and  that  was  its  ashes — lay 
buried  there.  Women  in  couples  wandered  off, 
slowly  strolling,  and  pausing  '  often  on  various 
trifling  pretenses,  —  to  reach  a  leaf,  standing  on 
tiptoe  to  do  it,  or  stooping  to  pluck  a  flower, — but 
quickening  their  paces  as  the  straggling  bushes 
intervened  to  veil  their  retreat,  until  tlu  utmost 
limits  of  the  clearing  were  passed,  and  themselves, 
hid  from  view,  were  lost  amid  the  cover  of  the 
copses.  But  the  centre  of  general  attraction  was 
the  "Spring."  Thither,  sooner  or  later  during  the 
"intermission,"  all  were  accustomed  to  repair. 
Those  that  thirsted  drank  of  the  water,  the  more 
attentive  youths  of  the  flock  standing,  gourd  or 
earthen  bowl  in  hand,  in  turn  at  the  fountain,  and 
Dispensing  the  element  to  the  rest  in  waiting, — 
blushing  to  the  brows  when  the  customer  happened 
to  be  one,  young  and  fair,  of  the  opposite  sex,  her 
self  crimsoning  to  the  bosom  in  return  as  she  trem 
blingly  received  the  proffered  vessel  from  his  hand. 
Lingering  as  they  came  and  drank,  the  visitors 
tarried,  so  that  ere  long  quite  a  large  proportion  of 
the  congregation  was  assembled  at  the  spot.  Seated 
on  stones  or  reclined  on  the  grass  rested  the  elders, 
puffing  their  pipes,  and  through  the  smoke  looking 
dreamily  on,  while  their  sons  and  daughters,  in 
separate  companies  that  would  not  mingle,  and  yet 
could  not  keep  apart,  found  pastime,  the  former 
in  delving  amid  the  soil  for  roots  of  sassafras  and 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  333 

calamus,  and  the  latter,  perchance,  in  gathering 
sprays  of  spearmint,  tramping  the  beds  in  which  it 
grew,  and  crushing  the  plants  as  they  did  so,  till 
all  the  air  around  was  odorous  with  their  perfume. 
The  blast  of  a  horn  blown  from  the  Tent  by 
the  clerk,  as  the  man  naturally  presumed  to  be 
best  in  wind  for  it,  gave  signal  when  the  half-hour 
of  intermission  was  up.  At  the  call  the  worshipers, 
laying  aside  all  levities — alas  for  the  levities  ! — of 
walk  and  conversation,  resumed  their  serious  de 
portment,  and  in  solemn  procession  took  up  their 
return  to  the  sanctuary.  Again  were  they  to  be 
seen  seated  in  their  places.  Again  the  minister 
mounted  the  pulpit,  stooped  to  a  kiss  of  the  little 
brown  jug,  and  rose  to  his  place  at  the  desk.  Again 
psalm,  prayer,  and  sermon  were  delivered  in  their 
order,  but  with  less  of  prolixity  now ;  and  again, 
as  the  sun's  rays  fell  slanting  down  through  the 
tree-tops  on  the  summits  of  the  hills  that  lay 
towards  his  setting,  was  heard  the  welcome  end-all 
to  the  exercise,  long  delayed,  but  reached  at  last, 
of  the  benediction.  Meeting  was  over.  The  last 
duty  of  the  day's  dismal  catalogue  was  discharged, 
and  with  a  sense  of  relief  which  it  would  have  been 
rank  crime  against  heaven  to  confess,  even  to  their 
own  consciences,  but  which  Was  felt  nevertheless, 
the  worshipers  scattered  towards  their  various 
homes,  thanking  God  in  their  hearts,  though  the 
devil  may  have  had  the  credit  of  the  suggestion, 
that  another  Sabbath  with  its  "sanctifications"  was 


334 


BLACK-ROBES. 


gone,  and  that  a  good  week's  allowance  was  theirs, 
ere  its  next  return,  of  rest, —  rest  that  was  real  in 
comparison, — rest  at  the  axe,  the  plow,  and  the 
mattock ;  chopping  in  the  forest,  furrowing  in  the 
field,  or  grubbing  in  the  clearing. 


IV. 


THE   LONG   SABBATH,   AND   THE   GREAT    BUFFALO 
SACRAMENT. 

THE  Great  Day,  holiest  among  the  hallowed 
of  the  year,  and  honored  with  special  observ 
ance  by  the  Presbyterians  of  the  border,  was  the 
"  Long  Sabbath,"  as  it  was  popularly  called,  or  the 
Sabbath  of  the  Sacrament.  The  strong  right  arm 
of  him  who  led,  preparing  the  way  of  the  "  New 
Departure,"  had  made  bare  itself  with  mighty 
effect  to  the  lopping  oiT  of  idolatrous  superfluities 
of  worship,  so  that  his  followers  now,  of  the  round 
of  ceremonials  that  used  to  give  variety  and  lend 
attraction  to  a  Lord's-day's  services,  had  but  this 
single  spared,  sadly-mutilated  remnant  left.  But 
as  a  mother,  bereft  of  all  beside  of  her  offspring, 
hugs  to  her  bosom  with  a  therefore  more  jealous 
liking  the  darling  that  only  remains,  so  the  Pres 
byterian  clung  to  his  Communion — the  one  Set- 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  335 

time,  the  sole  Solemn  Feast,  that  he  could  call  his 
own — with  the  concentrated  whole  of  his  soul^e 
devotion.  , 

The  Sacrament,  as  the  common  rule  of  the  time, 
was  celebrated  but  once  a  year.  A  minister  had 
usually,  however,  two  congregations  under  his 
care,  so  that,  having  to  provide  for  the  spiritual 
necessities  of  both,  the  ordinance  occurred  twice 
under  his  administration — once  to  each  parish — 
during  that  term.  The  ceremonies  of  the  season 
lasted  through  five  days.  The  opening  one — 
Thursday — was  consecrated  to  fasting,  humiliation, 
and  prayer,  and  was  observed,  especially  in  the 
first  particular,  with  scrupulous  fidelity.  It  was 
the  New-Dispensation  "  Day  of  Atonement"  bor 
rowed  bodily  from  the  Old;  and  not  Moses  himself 
could  have  honored  it  more  strictly  in  accordance 
with  his  own  law,  save  in  the  offer  of  the  offering 
by  fire,  perhaps,  of  the  young  bullock,  the  ram, 
and  the  seven  lambs,  than  did  his  loyal  follower 
on  the  border.  The  sermon  of  the  day  was  long 
beyond  ordinary;  prayerfully  prepared,  and  par 
ticularly,  as  an  exhibit  of  the  "grounds  and 
reasons"  for  the  fast  should  be ;  and  powerfully 
adapted,  so  the  assurance  comes  down  to  us,  as  a 
strengthening  exercise  towards  making  more  suc 
cessfully  the  ascension  of  the  mount  of  ordinances 
on  the  ensuing  Sabbath.  Friday  was  not  so  de 
voutly  observed.  Few,  except  those  who  intended 
to  "take  the  sacrament,"  went  to  meeting,  the  rest 


336  BLA  CK-R  OSES. 

remaining  at  home  and  pursuing,  but  only  with 
a-  half-hearted  sort  of  energy,  their  usual  labors. 
Saturday  followed  in  the  same  way,  the  "  seculars" 
doubtfully  on  duty  at  work,  and  the  saints  having 
the  worship  to  themselves.  After  the  preaching 
on  this  day,  the  session  of  the  church  was  accus 
tomed  to  meet  to  examine  applicants  for  member 
ship  and  to  distribute  "  tokens"  among  those  that 
were  entitled  to  commune.  These  "tokens"  were 
small  pieces  of  flattened  lead,  about  the  size  of 
the  copper  coin,  then  in  circulation,  known  as  the 
"half-cent,"  and  stamped,  to  make  them  valid, 
with  the  initials — B.  C,  for  instance,  indicating 
"Buffalo  Church" — of  the  congregation  to  which 
they  belonged.  The  "  token"  was  regarded  for 
many  years  as  an  "element"  excellent  of  virtue, 
and  quite  as  essential  to  an  orthodox  celebration 
of  the  Supper  as  the  bread  and  the  wine.  It  went 
into  disuse  finally,  as  later  and  somewhat  more 
liberal  generations  sprang  up  to  take  the  place  of 
their  fathers,  but  never  while  a  gray-beard  of  the 
old  stock  lingered  to  protest  against  the  innova 
tion. 

The  Sabbath,  however,  was  The  Day,  by  emi 
nent  distinction,  of  the  group,  and  enjoyed  the 
special  honors  of  the  season  accordingly.  Not 
only  did  all  the  members  of  the  .congregation,  con 
verted  and  unconverted,  make  it  a  point  to  be  in 
attendance  at  the  meeting-house,  but  distant  fellow- 
believers  from  other  parishes,  ten,  fifteen,  twenty 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  337 

miles  away,  gathered  in,  so  that  the  exercises, 
opening  half  an  hour  earlier  than  usual,  witnessed, 
when  begun,  such  an  assemblage  as  the  sanctuary 
usually  had  scarcely  the  capacity  to  accommodate. 
The  Black-Robe  in  charge  had  always  from  two  or 
three  to  half  a  dozen  of  his  ministerial  brethren  to 
assist  him  at  the  services ;  while  the  clerk,  extend 
ing  his  invitations  on  a  similar  scale  of  liberality, 
not  to  be  behind  in  supporting  the  dignity  of  his 
office,  was  to  be  seen  surrounded  by  half  the 
precentors  of  the  Presbytery.  The  offering  of  the 
introductory  prayer  was  attended  to  by  one  of  the 
reverend  aids  ;  the  reading  of  the  psalm,  by  another. 
The  delivery  of  the  discourse,  or  Action  Sermon,  as 
it  was  called,  devolved  upon  the  pastor.  A  third 
assistant  afterwards  took  up  the  exercise  of  Fencing" 
the  Tables,  or,  as  with  propriety  it  might  be  termed, 
"  Boxing  the  Compass"  of  the  creed.  This  was  a 
performance  preliminary  to  the  dispensation  of  the 
Sacrament,  in  which,  taking  the  Ten  Command 
ments  for  his  text,  the  preacher  entered  upon  an 
exposition  that,  beginning  with  the  first,  was  sus 
tained — the  rest,  one  by  one,  following  in  their 
order — until  the  list  entire  was  disposed  of.  Emi 
nent  account  was  made  of  the  decalogue  as  covering 
the  whole  ground  of  qualification  for  church-mem 
bership,  and  so  rigorously  were  the  tables  "fenced" 
in  the  enumeration  of  the  sins  forbidden  in  each 
commandment,  that  it  was  commonly  remarked 
2-) 


338  BLA  CK-R  OSES. 

by  the  profane  (and  without  dissent,  either,  on  the 
part  of  the  reverend  biographer  who  chronicles  the 
fact),  that  "  the  preacher  never  stopped  till  he  had 
solemnly  debarred  from  the  ordinance  every  one 
of  his  people,  and  himself  to  boot." 

These  preparatory  services  discharged,  the  bap 
tismal  ceremonies  came  next.  All  the  children 
of  believers  born  within  the  year,  to  the  very 
youngest,  where  it  was  possible  for  the  parents  to 
appear  with  them,  were  expected  to  be  present  to 
undergo  the  rite.  A  long  dissertation  preceded 
the  "sprinkling,"  in  which  were  dwelt  upon,  par 
ticularly,  the  points  in  controversy  between  the 
more  prominent  sects  of  the  time :  first,  that  is, 
as  to  whether  infants  were  proper  subjects  of 
the  ordinance ;  and  second,  whether  the  mode  in 
vogue  among  Presbyterians  of  applying  it  was  the 
scriptural  one  ;  both  of  which  were  affirmatively 
demonstrated  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  all  con 
cerned.  It  was  not  only  recommended  to  the 
parents  at  the  same  time,  but  required  of  them  by 
solemn  vow,  that  they  should  conscientiously  per 
form  all  their  duty  in  the  religious  training  and 
nurturing  of  their  children  ;  especially  attending  to 
their  instruction  in  that  faultless  digest  of  only 
genuine  doctrine,  the  Shorter  Catechism.  As  a 
test  of  their  fidelity  to  the  promise  thus  given,  it 
was  the  custom  of  the  minister  to  call  at  least  once 
a  year  on  each  of  the  families  in  his  charge,  and 
put  the  children  to  the  "  question"  (in  more  senses 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN. 


339 


than  one),  who  were  expected,  and  seldom  failed, 
to  be  ready  for  the  ordeal. 

Then  followed  "  the  Sacrament."  Tables  made 
of  logs  with  the  upper  side  hewn  down  so  as  to 
leave  a  flat  surface,  and  supported  either  on  blocks 
of  wood  or  legs  of  sapling-stocks  cut  the  right 
length  and  straddled  apart,  two  at  each  end,  to 
make  a  steady  work  of  it,  were  arranged  length 
wise  along  the  central  aisle  or  passage,  and  again 
transversely  across  the  open  space  in  front  of  the 
pulpit.  Other  logs,  dressed  in  a  similar  way,  but 
narrower  and  lower,  and  designed  to  serve  as  seats, 
ran  parallel-wise  along  either  side  of  the  table.  On 
the  centre  of  the  transverse  table,  and  consequently 
at  the  head  of  the  other, — widened  somewhat  for 
the  purpose, — stood  the  vessels  containing  the 
sacred  symbols.  These  latter  were  covered  with 
white  linen  napkins,  as,  in  cloth  of  the  same  mate 
rial,  was  the  board  itself  (neatly  folded  and  pinned 
at  the  corners) ;  prepared — the  spotlessness  of  the 
fabric,  and  the  creases,  marked  by  the  iron,  with 
which  it  was  barred,  showing  with  what  an  eye  to 
tidiness — for  the  occasion.  Taking  his  station  at 
this  point  of  the  table,  the  exercises  of  the  Feast 
were  opened  by  the  pastor  with  an  address,  the 
most  noticeable  feature  of  which  was  its  elaborate 
laying  bare  of  the  kindred  enormities  of  transub- 
stantiation  and  impanation,  as  heretically  enter 
tained  by  Romanists  and  Lutherans ;  both  of 
which,  the  people  were  assured,  it  became  them  as 


3  40  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

good  and  true  communicants  utterly  to  repudiate. 
Next  in  order  a  psalm  was  read,  during  the 
singing  of  which,  to  some  melancholy  tune,  such 
as  "Coleshill,"  or  "Communion,"  or,  when  the 
metre  admitted  of  it,  "  Windham,"  a  portion  of  the 
church-members  rising  to  their  feet  and  filing  into 
line  marched  into  and  along  the  aisle,  the  men  on 
one  side  and  the  women  on  the  other,  until  the 
leaders  reached  the  end  of  the  table,  where  they 
seated  themselves, — their  followers  dropping  suc 
cessively  into  place  likewise,  side  by  side,  as  they 
approached,  until  the  benches  were  filled.  The 
singing  then  ceased ;  whereupon  two  of  the  elders 
arose,  and,  commencing  at  the  rear  of  the  board, 
started  along  the  lines  to  collect  the  tokens  ;  pretty 
much  as  a  car-conductor  does,  passing  among  his 
passengers  to  lift  their  tickets  for  the  trip.  Served 
with  the  customary  formalities,  more  or  less  tedious 
as  the  minister  officiating  chose  at  his  pleasure  to 
order  it,  this  first  installment  of  communicants  re 
tired  at  length,  under  cover  of  Coleshill  resumed ; 
while  a  second,  at  the  same  time, — the  counter-files 
edging  side-wise  past  each  other  as  they  came  and 
went  along  the  narrow  aisle, — moved  forward  to 
occupy  their  vacated  places.  The  same  proceed 
ing  was  repeated  over  and  over  again,  so  that  there 
were,  not  unfrequently,  six  or  seven  tables  filled 
and  administered  to  before  all  were  served  who 
were  entitled  to  the  privilege.  At  the  close  of  the 
meeting  the  preachers  and  the  elders  were  accus- 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  341 

tomed  to  assemble  in  a  little  group  by  themselves 
and  have  a  private  entertainment  of  their  own,  on 
a  more  liberal  scale,  over  the  elements  that  were 
left  of  the  Supper,  not,  of  course,  to  gratify  a  carnal 
appetite,  but  merely  to  show,  practically,  their  con 
tempt  of  the  old  notion,  which  they  had  just  heard 
denounced  from  the  pulpit,  of  the  fact  of  a  Real 
Presence  in  the  Sacrament,  or  that  the  bread  and 
wine  were  anything  other,  holier  or  better,  than 
they  ought  to  be. 

It  seems  almost  incomprehensible  how  out  of  a 
series  of  exercises  so  frigid  and  formal  it  should 
be  possible  for  other  than  correspondingly  formal 
and  frigid  effects  to  proceed.  The  intellectual  and 
the  emotional  are  not  in  such  relations  of  sym 
pathy  that  the  tender  susceptibilities  of  the  one 
should  melt  responsively  to  the  dull  logic  (which 
it  does  not  comprehend)  of  the  other.  And  yet 
we  have  the  evidence  that  the  miracle  could 
happen;  that  a  homily  of  Smith's  or  Macurdy's 
could  arouse  to  enthusiasm  as  well  as  a  harangue 
from  Finley  or  Cartwright,  and  that  the  impertur 
bable  predestinarian  could  be  brought  to  his  rap 
tures  as  well  as  the  impressible  Methodist.  Shortly 
after  the  Cane-Ridge  revival,  a  very  similar  move 
ment  started  in  one  of  the  Presbyterian  parishes 
of  Western  Pennsylvania.  It  created  intense  ex 
citement  at  the  time,  and — not  only  because  of  the 
extraordinary  manifestations  which  attended  it,  but 
as  the  opening  scene  of  a  revival  that  spread  through 

29* 


342  BLACK-ROBES. 

all  the  settlements,  and  continued,  more  or  less 
powerfully,  to  prevail  through  some  four  years,  to 
the  material  building  up  of  the  Redstone  Zion — 
has  become  memorable  in  the  annals  of  the  church. 
The  occasion  is  associated  with  the  place  in  which 
it  occurred,  and  is  known  in  the  narratives  of  the 
time  as  the  GREAT  BUFFALO  SACRAMENT. 

On  the  last  Sabbath  of  October,  1802,  the  com 
munion  of  the  congregation  at  Cross  Roads  took 
place,  which  was  attended  with  such  gracious  dis 
plays  of  divine  power  as  to  induce  the  brethren  to 
make  an  appointment  for  the  administration  of 
the  same  ordinance,  two  weeks  later,  at  the  church 
of  Upper  Buffalo.  Very  remarkable  exercises  had 
attended  the  services  at  Cross  Roads,  in  the  pres 
ence  of  an  unusually  large  assembly,  the  fame  of 
which  was  carried  far  and  wide  throughout  the 
region;  so  that  when  the  announcement  was  pub 
lished  that  the  celebration  was  to  be  repeated,  the 
people  everywhere  were  eagerly  ready  to  attend. 
With  the  dawn  of  the  day  before  the  appointed 
Sabbath — Saturday — began  to  pour  in  the  wor 
shipers,  the  tide  keeping  increasingly  up  until 
much  the  largest  assembly  which  had  ever  been 
seen  at  a  religious  meeting  in  Western  Pennsyl 
vania,  numbering  about  ten  thousand,  was  collected 
on  the  ground.  Among  the  rest  were  fifteen  min 
isters.  Houses  in  the  neighborhood  were  hos 
pitably  thrown  open  for  the  accommodation  of 
attendants ;  horses  were  stabled  in  the  barns,  and 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN. 


343 


the  wants  of  both — beasts  and  owners — abundantly 
supplied  while  food  and  fodder  lasted.  Tents,  with 
which  they  had  prudently  come  provided,  were 
erected  by  some,  while  others  camped  in  the  woods, 
under  booths  of  bushes  hastily  heaped  together 
for  a  shelter.  On  Saturday  afternoon  two  of  the 
ministers  preached  at  the  same  time, — one  in  the 
meeting-house,  the  other  in  the  tent.  Exercises, 
consisting  of  preaching,  exhortation,  prayer,  and 
praise,  were  resumed  in  the  evening  and  kept  up 
through  the  night.  Two  discourses  were  deliv 
ered,  simultaneously  again,  on  Sunday  morning, 
one  in  the  church,  as  before,  and  one  in  the  open 
air.  The  Sacrament,  with  its  customary  formali 
ties,  was  then  administered,  nearly  a  thousand 
communicants  participating  in  the  ceremony.  The 
Reverend  Elisha  Macurdy,  well  remembered  yet 
by  many  on  the  scene  of  his  early  labors,  as  in 
the  closing  days  of  his  life  he  used  to  appear, 
after  having  officiated  at  the  first  table,  at  the  re 
quest  of  one  of  his  brethren,  took  a  position  at  a 
short  distance  from  the  meeting-house,  and,  while 
the  rest  of  the  tables  were  still  being  served,  began 
to  preach  to  the  crowd  that  soon  collected  about 
him.  He  selected  for  his  text  the  second  Psalm, 
and  delivered  the  discourse,  entirely  unpremedi 
tated,  as  we  are  assured,  which  proved  the  eventful 
one  of  his  life,  and  which  has  ever  since  been  fa 
mously  known  in  clerical  circles  as  "  Macurdy's 
War  Sermon."  The  effect  produced  upon  his 


344  BLA  CK- ROBES. 

audience  was  overwhelming, — literally,  almost,  in 
point  of  fact,  like  a  discharge  of  musketry.  He 
"popped  them  down,"  as  the  saying  among  the 
thoughtless  and  wicked  was,  "  like  pigeons,"  the 
scene  appearing  "  like  the  close  of  a  battle,  in 
which  every  tenth  man  had  fallen  fatally  wounded." 
It  was  the  old  experience  told  over  again  of  Cane- 
Ridge,  the  same  mysterious  agency  breaking  out 
and  working  in  the  same  mysterious  way.  Some 
fell  to  the  earth  suddenly ;  some  sunk  gradually ; 
some  lay  quiet  and  silent;  some  were  violently 
agitated;  some,  seeing  the  spiritual  glory,  rejoiced 
hopefully,  while  others  groaned  in  pain,  sorrowing 
and  thirsting  for  the  water  of  life.  The  work  con 
tinued  with  unabated  interest  on  through  Monday 
and  until  the  evening  of  Tuesday,  the  people  lin 
gering  fondly  as  long  as  they  might  at  the  place 
where  so  much  of  God's  power  had  been  mani 
fested  in  their  presence 

Not  to  let  the  awakening  subside,  nor  to  fail  of 
putting  it  to  the  best  advantage  while  it  lasted,  the 
meeting  at  Buffalo  Creek  was  followed  up  by  sim 
ilar  ones,  held,  one  after  another,  in  all  the  various 
churches  of  the  region.  Each  in  its  turn  was 
a  success,  the  interest  which  had  foeen  aroused 
keeping  up  unabatedly  from  first  to  last.  Crowds 
gathered  at  all,  from  all  quarters  of  the  country, — 
from  the  Forks,  from  Salem,  from  Congruity,  from 
Chartiers.  The  church  at  Cross  Roads  was  so 
packed  with  hearers  that  the  preacher,  unable  to 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  345 

force  an  entrance  at  the  door,  had  to  use  a  ladder 
and  climb  in  to  his  pulpit  through  a  back  window 
of  the  building. 

A  remarkable  feature  of  the  revival,  viewed  in 
connection  with  its  peculiarities  of  manifestation, 
was  the  character  of  the  preaching,  not  only  under 
which  it  started,  but  by  which,  afterwards,  it  was 
sustained.  The  sermons  were  purely  doctrinal. 
The  source  and  the  supply  of  the  enthusiasms  of 
the  season  were  the  Confession  of  Faith  and  the 
Catechisms.  The  doctrine  of  Justification  by  Faith, 
we  are  assured,  was  much  insisted  upon ;  also  that 
of  Sanctification  by  the  Word  and  Spirit  of  God, 
and  the  manner  of  receiving  Christ  and  walking  in 
Him,  as  set  forth  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  the 
Standards  of  the  church.  That  "  men  of  informa 
tion,  of  strong  nerves  and  vigorous  understand 
ings,"  to  say  nothing  of  women  and  children,  should 
have  been  overcome — "  popped  down  like  pigeons" 
— by  orthodox  knocks  such  as  these,  is  certainly 
astonishing,  and  is  about  the  best  evidence  that 
could  be  quoted  in  proof  of  the  presence  of  a 
supernatural  agency  in  the  work. 

That  there  was  an  influence  more  than  human 
astir  was  generally  conceded  among  the  members; 
but  whether  it  emanated  from  above,  or  proceeded 
from  below,  was  a  controverted  point.  One  would 
suppose  that  the  simple  fact  of  there  being  room 
to  doubt  the  question  ought  to  have  settled  it.  To 
say  that "  the  devil  could  not  have  been  its  author," 


346  BLA  CK-ROBES. 

seems  rather  like  an  intimation  that  there  was 
plausible  reason  to  suspect  he  was,  and  to  try  to 
prove  the  proposition  only  strengthens  the  doubt. 

Outside  the  communion,  among  "  the  opposers 
of  the  revival,"  the  excitement  was  attributed  by 
many  to  the  terrific  character  of  the  preaching, 
the  vehement  appeals  to  the  conscience,  and  the 
protracted  exercises  ;  all  calculated,  as  was  alleged, 
to  produce  just  such  an  effect  on  persons  of  weak 
nerves  and  delicate  constitutions.  As  against  this 
solution,  it  was  retorted  that  the  deists  who  offered 
it  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  it,  especially  as  not 
a  few  of  their  own  number,  fortified  against  im 
pression  by  the  writings  of  Bolingbroke,  Hume, 
Voltaire,  and  Paine,  had,  nevertheless,  been  brought 
down  among  the  rest.  Could  such  a  miracle  be 
ascribed  to  anything  else  than  the  finger  of  God  ? 

Others  accounted  for  it  on  the  ground  of  "  Sym 
pathy."  In  rejoinder  to  this  theory,  it  was  urged 
that  sympathy  can  only  communicate  as  it  has  been 
communicated  to  ;  that  it  never  could  have  begun 
such  a  work,  and  that  the  work  having  ceased 
though  but  for  an  hour,  it  could  not  have  brought 
it  again  into  operation.  One  person  falling  might 
have  brought  another  sympathizing  neighbor  down 
with  him,  but  what  occasioned  the  first  prostra 
tion  ?  The  merit  of  the  invention  of  this  argument 
belongs  to  the  Rev.  Doctor  George  A.  Baxter,  the 
then  President  of  Washington  College. 

A  more  philosophical  and  better-sustained  view, 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  347 

as  its  author  claims,  was  that  the  bodily  affection 
was  the  result  of  the  mental  excitement  arising 
from  the  influence  of  the  Spirit  and  truth  of  God 
upon  the  consciences  of  those  who  were  its  sub 
jects.  As  violent  gusts  of  passion,  sudden  sur 
prise,  strong  mental  impulses  in  which  either  joy 
or  sorrow  predominates,  produce  sometimes  inju 
rious,  occasionally  fatal,  bodily  results,  why  might 
not  similar  effects  proceed  from  the  similar  in 
fluence  of  religious  excitement?  And  yet  the 
inventor  of  the  argument  confesses  to  having  en 
countered  a  difficulty  in  it, — this,  that  there  were 
instances  of  pungent  exercise  of  mind  where  the 
generally  accompanying  physical  symptoms  were 
entirely  wanting.  The  difficulty  was  an  insuper 
able  one,  for  an  exception  to  the  rule  was  an  ex 
tinguisher  to  the  argument,  as  the  projector  of  it 
upon  final  reflection  concedes,  and  it  was  aban 
doned.  No  explanation  could  be  settled  on  that 
was  entirely  satisfactory,  although  the  general  con 
viction  soon  grew  to  be  that  the  outsiders,  or 
"  opposers,"  had,  as  near  as  could  be,  the  sensible 
view  of  it. 

As  the  results  of  this  remarkable  outpouring  of 
the  Spirit,  we  are  informed  that  many  hundreds  of 
persons,  of  both  sexes  and  of  all  ages,  were  brought 
under  deep  conviction  of  their  sins.  A  considerable 
proportion  of  these — one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
at  the  congregations  of  Cross-Roads  and  Three 
Springs  alone — were  converted,  as  it  was  hopefully 


348  BLACK-ROBES. 

believed ;  but  there  were  numerous  cases  among 
them,  unhappily,  of  apostasy.  On  the  whole,  not 
withstanding  the  large  accessions  claimed,  the 
church  does  not  seem  to  have  afterwards  held  the 
Buffalo  style  of  sensation  in  particular  esteem;  for, 
with  the  exception  of  a  brief  run  of  very  unsatis 
factory  experience  at  the  Anxious  Bench,  which 
occurred  about  a  generation  later,  when  similar 
scenes,  though  on  a  less  extravagant  scale,  were 
acted  over  again,  she  has  cautiously  steered  clear 
of  it  altogether. 


V. 

THE   EARLY    LABORERS    IN   THE   BORDER   VINEYARD. 

OF  those  who  enjoy  distinguished  mention,  as 
eminent  on  one  account  or  another  among 
the  Presbyterian  Black-Robes  of  the  border,  the 
choice  of  renown  attaches  to  the  half-dozen  who 
were  foremost  to  take  the  field, — Power,  McMillan, 
Finley,  Smith,  Dodd,  and  Clark.  These  "  mission 
aries"  appeared  on  the  scene  of  their  future  labors 
nearly  simultaneously, — entering  almost  abreast,  as 
we  are  told,  upon  the  mighty  harvest, — and  con 
tinued  thenceforward  as  faithful  co-workers  in  the 
cause  to  the  end.  As  conglomerately,  so  to  speak, 
the  Rock  upon  which  the  Western  Zion  was 
founded,  their  fame  rates  high,  in  the  estimation 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  349 

especially  of  the  generation  that  succeeded  them  ; 
nor  among  the  children's  children  will  their  names 
be  forgotten  while  frontier  legends,  told  at  family 
firesides,  may  hold  their  power  to  charm,  or  while 
the  local  histories  last,  to  invite  a  perusal,  in  which 
they  are  written.  We  have  already  alluded  to  most 
of  them,  but  a  somewhat  more  particular  reference 
may  not  be  out  of  place. 

JAMES  POWER  emigrated  with  his  family  to  the 
West  in  1776.  He  did  not  take  the  regular  charge 
of  a  congregation  for  some  years,  but  served  as  a 
sort  of  missionary  pastor,  dividing  his  time  among 
the  churches  at  Mount  Pleasant,  Unity,  Laurel 
Hill,  Dunlap's  Creek,  Tyrone,  and  Sewickley.  Five 
years  later  he  was  installed  as  the  regular  pastor 
over  the  flocks  of  the  two  folds  at  Mount  Pleasant 
and  the  neighboring  field  of  Sewickley.  In  1787 
he  ceased  his  connection  with  the  latter-mentioned 
people,  and,  on  a  salary  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds  a  year,  devoted  his  exclusive  services  to 
the  former.  Here  he  remained  until  the  spring 
of  1817,  when,  in  consequence  of  the  infirmities 
attending  old  age,  he  retired,  resigning  his  charge 
to  the  care  of  the  Rev.  A.  O.  Patterson.  Thirteen 
years  afterwards  he  died. 

Mr.  Power  was  a  man  of  medium  height,  slen 
derly  built,  and  of  erect  stature.  In  his  dress  he 
was  plain  and  neat ;  easy  in  his  manners ;  cour 
teous  in  his  deportment ;  of  a  mild  disposition  ;  a 
dignified  minister  in  the  pulpit,-  and  a  genial  gen- 
30 


350 


BLACK-ROBES. 


tleman,  though  rather  a  precise  one,  out  of  it.  He 
had  a  sweet  voice,  and  spoke  with  great  ease  and 
no  little  eloquence.  His  favorite  portion  of  the 
Scriptures  was  the  Psalms ;  handling  them  often 
at  the  desk, — always,  in  fact,  when  favorable  occa 
sions  tempted  him  to  aim  at  telling  effects  in  his 
lectures.  His  parishes  extended  over  a  reach  of 
thirty  miles,  every  family  in  which  it  was  his  rule 
to  visit  at  least  once  during  each  year.  Besides 
these  pastoral  calls,  it  was  his  custom  to  assemble 
the  people,  men,  women,  and  children,  of  different 
neighborhoods,  from  time  to  time,  and  put  them 
through  a  course  of  examination  on  doctrinal  faith ; 
requiring  them  to  repeat  the  Assembly's  Catechism 
from  beginning  to  end,  together  with  the  proofs 
from  the  Bible,  and  the  explanations  of  Fisher. 
In  addition  to  his  other  virtues,  faithful  chroniclers 
have  not  neglected  to  note  the  fact  that  he  was 
a  good  rider  and  an  excellent  judge  of  a  horse; 
always,  with  an  eye  to  the  protection  of  his  dress, 
selecting  one  with  such  a  step  as  would  not  cast 
mud  or  dirt,  while  traveling,  on  his  person.  Pro 
fessionally,  Mr.  Power's  labors  could  not  be  said 
to  have  been  rewarded  with  remarkable  results ; 
although  it  is  claimed  for  him  that  he  was  success 
ful  in  edifying  Christians,  instructing  the  young, 
and  improving  the  morals  of  the  community. 

JOHN  McMiLLAN  was  born  of  North-of-Ireland 
parents,  at  Fagg's  Manor,  Chester  County,  Penn 
sylvania,  in  1752. '  He  commenced  his  classical 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  351 

studies  at  the  academy,  somewhat  celebrated,  of 
his  native  place,  under  the  charge  of  the  Rev.  John 
Blair,  which  he  further  pursued  at  the  grammar- 
school  at  Pequea,  and  finally  completed  at  Prince 
ton  College,  in  New  Jersey,  at  the  time  presided 
over  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Witherspoon.  He  studied 
theology  privately  under  the  direction  of  Dr.  Smith, 
at  Pequea,  was  licensed  by  the  Presbytery  of  New 
Castle  in  1774,  and  entered  upon  his  border  mission, 
taking  charge  of  the  congregations  at  Chartiers  and 
Pigeon  Creek,  in  the  fall  of  1778.  Mr.  McMillan 
was  a  man  of  stern  and  forbidding  aspect ;  of  an 
uncommonly  dark  complexion,  and  with  a  coun 
tenance  sharply  marked  and  strikingly  expressive 
in  every  feature.  His  manners  were  "studiedly" 
— perhaps  it  would  be  nearer  the  mark  to  say 
vulgarly — plain.  He  was  clownishly  careless  as 
to  his  personal  appearance,  being  usually  dressed, 
as  chroniclers,  seeing  fun  but  no  farce  in  the  fact, 
inform  us,  like  the  Jack  of  Spades,  with  boots  on 
like  a  ten-gallon  keg.  It  is  scarcely  characterizing 
his  common  walk  and  conversation  too  severely  to 
say  that  they  were  ungentlemanly.  General  Mor 
gan  having  ridden  to  church  one  day  in  a  carriage, 
the  first  vehicle  of  the  kind  ever  seen  in  the  neigh 
borhood,  Mr.  McMillan  manifested  his  ill-bred 
impertinence  by  contemptuously  remarking  in  his 
sermon  that  "  people  might  travel  on  the  broad 
road  in  fine  carriages,  as  well  as  on  horseback  or 
afoot."  In  a  quarrel  with  one  of  his  professional 


352  BLA  CK-R  OSES. 

brethren,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Birch,  he  denounced  him 
as  "a  liar,  a  drunkard,  and  a  preacher  of  the  devil." 
Mr.  Birch  entered  suit  against  him  for  slander,  on 
which  he  was  tried  before  the  civil  court  of  Wash 
ington  County,  and  convicted.  The  plea  that  the 
language  had  been  used  in  a  sort  of  Pickwickian 
sense,  secured  a  reversal  of  the  decision  in  the 
Supreme  Court,  to  which  it  was  appealed,  but 
could  not  shake  the  opinion  of  the  honorable- 
minded  among  the  people,  that  the  expression 
was  grossly  unbecoming,  and  such  as  no  circum 
stances  could  justify,  especially  in  a  minister  of  the 
gospel. 

As  a  preacher,  Dr.  McMillan  was  of  no  marked 
reputation.  There  was  little  or  no  action  in  his 
delivery.  He  seldom  moved  an  arm  or  lifted  a 
hand,  by  way  of  gesture,  in  the  pulpit  His  voice 
was  harsh,  and  his  sermons,  while  always  sensible, 
pious,  and  full  of  matter,  were  severely  plain  and 
simple.  He  was  much  in  the  habit  of  repeating 
himself;  but  his  exhortations,  though  heard  ever 
so  often,  always,  somehow,  we  are  assured,  seemed 
fresh  to  the  hearer.  As  a  teacher  he  was  a  greater 
success  than  as  a  preacher ;  so  that,  although  there 
was  reason  to  be  thankful  for  three  wide- spread 
and  powerful  revivals  that  occurred  under  his  min 
istry,  the  church  confesses  to  a  deeper  sjnse  of 
gratitude  for  the  hundred,  more  or  le;s,  of  young 
men  taken  in  hand  and  trained  for  the  pulpit  under 
his  private  tuition.  He  lived  to  the  ripe  old  age 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  353 

of  fourscore-and-one,  his  death  taking  place  at 
Canonsburg  in  1833,  up  almost  to  the  very  date  of 
which  he  continued,  with  his  mental  and  physical 
faculties  but  little  impaired,  in  the  active  prosecu 
tion  of  his  professional  labors. 

JAMES  FINLEY,  an  Irishman,  born  (1725)  in  the 
county  of  Armagh,  in  the  province  of  Ulster,  emi 
grated  to  America  while  yet  a  boy ;  was  taught  in 
the  languages  and  sciences  at  Fagg's  Manor ;  or 
dained  to  preach  in  1752,  was  the  first  minister  to 
set  foot  on  western  soil,  although  rather  on  a  merce 
nary  tramp  (having  "an  eye  on  certain  good  tracts 
of  land")  than  a  missionary  one ;  moved  to  the 
border  with  his  family  in  1783,  and  permanently 
settled  there,  as  the  pastor  of  Rehoboth  and  Round- 
hill  congregations,  some  two  years  afterwards.  Mr. 
Finley  is  described  as  a  fat,  fidgety,  red-faced  little 
fellow  in  black,  good-natured,  and  quite  a  favorite 
among  his  people.  He  was  a  man  who,  while  duly 
attentive  to  spiritual  affairs,  was,  at  the  same  time, 
not  forgetful  of  temporal  ones.  It  was  possible, 
as  he  saw  it,  to  serve  God,  and  yet,  without  dispar 
agement  to  his  loyalty,  to  lend  some  little  alle 
giance  to  Mammon  too.  To  have  a  faith  was  no 
reason  why  he  should  not  have  a  farm,  or,  for  that 
matter,  several  farms, — one  for  each  of  his  half- 
dozen  of  promising  boys.  The  only  points  in 
Mr.  Finley's  history  which  tradition  has  laid  hold 
of  as  worthy  of  mention  are  that  he  was  a  man  of 
eminent  piety,  and  an  excellent  pastor;  that  he 


354  BLACK-ROBES. 

visited  mudi  among  his  people,  and  that  he  was 
particularly  remarkable  for  his  attention  to  the 
catechetical  instruction  of  the  youth  of  his  con 
gregation.  In  his  own  family  it  was  his  custom  to 
call  his  children  and  slaves  together  and  put  them, 
through  the  same  training,  regularly  every  Sabbath 
evening.  His  forte  does  not  seem  to  have  lain  so 
much  in  bringing  sheep  into  the  fold  as  in  keeping 
them  there  when  they  were  in.  He  was  conserva 
tive  rather  than  aggressive ;  better  satisfied  to  hold 
fast  to  the  bird  in  the  hand  than  to  run  any  risk  by 
reaching  after  others  in  the  bush.  And  so  he  lived, 
his  parish  his  world,  he  all  in  all  to  his  people,  his 
people  all  in  all  to  him  ;  and  so  he  died. 

JOSEPH  SMITH,  a  Marylander,  of  Nottingham  in 
that  State,  was  born  in  1736,  received  his  literary 
education  at  Princeton,  studied  theology  under  Dr. 
Samuel  Finley,  at  Nassau  Hall,  and  in  1767  was 
licensed  to  preach  the  gospel.  He  visited  Wash 
ington  County  in  1779,  where  he  remained  for 
some  time,  breaking  the  bread  of  life  to  these 
people  "  in  the  wilderness."  A  few  months  later 
he  received  a  call  from  the  congregations  at  Buffalo 
and  Cross  Creek,  which  he  accepted,  moving  out  to 
take  charge  of  them  in  the  year  following.  Mr. 
Smith  was  tall  and  slender  in  person,  of  fair  com 
plexion,  an  expressive  countenance,  and  with  eyes 
that  were  piercingly  brilliant,  but  which,  like  the 
celebrated  Whitefield's,  squinted.  This  peculiarity 
served  him  in  profitable  stead,  however,  giving 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  355 

him  an  increased  power  over  his  audience;  as,  look 
where  he  might,  each  hearer  felt  that  his  eye  was 
on  him,  and,  taking  the  notice  in  good  faith,  ac 
cepted  the  appeal  that  went  with  it,  never  doubting, 
as  personal  to  himself.  His  voice,  promptly  ad 
justable  to  any  style  of  eloquence, — "now  like  the 
thunder,  and  now  like  the  music  of  heaven," — was 
perfectly  at  home  alike  on  the  "terrific"  as  on  the 
"pathetic," — when  in  glowing  rhapsodies  he  pic 
tured  the  attractions  of  heaven,  or  when,  "  arrayed 
with  divine  and  awful  majesty,  he  uncovered  the 
bottomless  and  wide-extending  pit  of  woe,  whose 
billows  of  fire  are  ever  lashed  into  fury  by  the 
almighty  breath  of  an  incensed  Saviour !"  He 
was  more  particularly  strong,  however,  on  the 
"  terrific," — "  that  kind  of  preaching  that  drives  a 
man  into  the  corner  of  his  pew,  and  makes  him 
think  the  devil  is  after  him;"  on  which  account  he 
was  generally  known  as  "Hell-fire"  Smith  along 
the  border.  As  a  deviser  of  innocent  contrivances 
"to  catch  flanking-parties  and  strolling  individuals 
in  the  gospel  net,"  and  as  an  "  eagle-eyed  spy  and 
scouter  upon  the  trails  of  the  enemy,"  capturing 
them  singly  and  in  squadrons,  he  was  eminently 
skillful  and  successful.  In  the  Christian  warfare 
upon  which  he  was  entered,  he  made  it  his  mission 
to  conquer, — peaceably  when  he  could,  forcibly 
when  he  must ;  accepting  the  latter  alternative, 
as  it  happened,  unhesitatingly  and  boldly,  for  "he 
feared  none  of  the  devil's  emissaries  on  this  side  of 


356  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

hell."  He  was  of  a  particularly  devotional  temper 
of  mind,  observing  closely  not  only  the  regularly- 
appointed  seasons  of  fasting,  humiliation,  and 
prayer,  but  privately,  in  his  own  family  and  on 
his  own  account,  setting  apart  others,  and  keeping 
them  quite  as  religiously.  It  was,  also,  a  common 
custom  with  him  to  seize  occasions  in  the  night 
for  intercessory  exercises ;  at  which  times  he  would 
leave  his  couch  and  kneel  upon  the  floor, — in  the 
winter  season  and  when  the  nights  were  cold,  keep 
ing  for  his  comfort,  as  he  did  so,  a  cloak  always 
hanging  ready  to  wrap  about  him,  at  the  foot  of 
his  bed. 

Hell-fire  Smith  may  with  propriety  be  said  to 
have  been  the  Lion  of  the  Tribe  of  the  Redstone 
Judah.  Wind  and  will  and  muscle  are  potent 
elements  in  the  church  as  well  as  out  of  it,  and 
there  was  a  larger  share  of  all  of  them  lodged  in 
that  long,  lank  frame  of  his  than  in  the  persons 
of  the  whole  remaining  of  his  co-presbyters  put 
together.  He  had  scarcely  planted  himself  among 
the  people  of  his  charges  before  a  lively  "  gale"  of 
grace  was  started  in  both  congregations.  Keeping 
in  steady  blast  through  the  mean  time,  the  gale 
reached  its  height  at  the  May  Sacrament  of  1787, 
at  Cross  Creek,  after  which  it  subsided  considera 
bly,  still  continuing,  however,  to  sustain  a  vigorous 
current,  as  long  as  life  was  spared  the  inspirer  of 
it  to  keep  it  in  motion.  He  died,  after  a  twelve 
years'  service  in  the  settlements,  on  the  I9th  of 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  357 

April,  1792;  sorely  to  the  sorrow  and  seriously 
to  the  apprehension  of  his  people,  who,  a  mourn 
ing  cotemporary  informs  us, — 

" trembled  when  this  Pillar  fell, 


Lest  God,  who  his  ambassador  withdrew, 
Should  take  away  his  Holy  Spirit  too." 

THADDEUS  DOD,  educated  at  the  College  of  New 
Jersey,  and  ordained  by  the  Presbytery  of  New 
York  in  1777  or  '78,  moved  in  the  year  following 
with  his  family  to  the  West,  where  he  settled,  in 
charge  of  the  two  congregations  of  Upper  Ten-Mile 
and  Lower  Ten-Mile,  each  about  the  distance  im 
plied  by  their  names  from  the  town  of  Washington. 
Mr.  Dod  is  described  as  a  young  man  of  sallow 
complexion,  slender  figure,  black  hair,  and  with 
eyes  that  were  dark,  keen,  and  penetrating.  Intel 
lectually  he  was  possessed  of  only  ordinary  ability, 
although  he  had  not  failed,  by  diligent  use  of  the 
means  of  improvement  that  were  within  his  reach, 
to  make  the  most  out  of  his  faculties  that  they 
were  capable  of.  He  made  himself  a  thorough 
master  of  the  Greek,  Latin,  and  Hebrew  languages. 
His  preferences,  however,  ran  rather  in  the  line  of 
the  exact  sciences.  The  Dods  of  the  day  were 
famous  for  their  mathematical  heads,  and  Thad- 
deus  did  no  discredit  to  the  connection.  He  could 
explain  every  line  and  figure  on  Gunter's  scale ;  and 
that  his  pupils,  when  he  had  them,  might  do  so, 
perfectly,  too,  it  was  required  of  them  that  they 


358  BLACK-ROBES. 

should  make  copies  of  this  ingenious  contrivance 
to  carry  about  with  them  in  their  pockets,  so  as  to 
be  conveniently  at  hand  at  all  times  for  study, — 
which  they  did,  carving  them  out  of  pieces,  neatly 
prepared  for  the  purpose,  of  dogwood.  Mr.  Dod, 
known  throughout  the  parishes  as  the  "  Son  of 
•  Consolation,"  was  a  man  in  whom  the  crowning 
Christian  virtue  shone  more  conspicuously  than  in 
any  other  of  his  brethren, — in  fact,  in  whom  alone 
of  the  whole  Presbytery  it  may  be  said  to  have 
shone  particularly  at  all.  He  was  modest  and  un- 
presuming  in  his  manners,  gentle  in  his  speech, 
and  deeply  devout  and  spiritual  in  his  nature.  But 
Providence  had  never,  evidently,  designed  him  for 
the  pulpit.  Mathematics  was  his  mission.  He 
seemed  himself  to  be  conscious  of  the  fact,  and 
before  he  had  been  many  years  in  the  service  began 
to  turn  his  chief  attention  in  that  direction.  In 
1782  he  opened  the  first  classical  and  scientific 
school  in  the  West.  Seven  years  later  he  was 
appointed  principal  of  the  academy  at  Washing 
ton,  which  position  he  continued  to  fill  until  the 
old  court-house  in  which  it  was  kept  was  de 
stroyed  by  fire.  He  died  in  the  spring  of  1793. 

JOHN  CLARK,  born  "  somewhere"  in  the  State  of 
New  Jersey,  educated  at  Princeton,  and  licensed 
by  the  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick,  after  having 
spent  much  the  better  part  of  his  life  in  unprofit 
able  service  among  various  folds  in  his  own  and 
the  neighboring  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia,  moved 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  359 

to  the  Redstone  region  in  1 78 1,  and,  then  in  the 
sixty-fourth  year  of  his  age,  took  charge  of  the 
united  congregations  of  Bethel  and  Lebanon.  Mr. 
Clark  had  not  experienced  a  halcyon  time  of  it 
while  tending  his  flocks  in  the  valleys  of  the  Dela 
ware,  and  this  was  undoubtedly  the  chief  induce 
ment  which  tempted  him  to  hazard  the  fortunes 
of  his  declining  years  among  a  strange  people  and 
in  the  new  settlements  of  the  border.  The  big 
white  wig  he  wore — quite  a  novelty  on  the  frontier 
— has  kept  the  memory  of  him  from  perishing, 
more  than  anything  else.  Concerning  him  as  a 
preacher,  except  in  the  general,  matter-of-course 
particular  that  he  was  "  solemn  and  impressive," 
little  or  nothing  is  known.  His  church  had  its 
attendants  on  Sabbath-days,  but  whether  they 
were  not  attracted  there  by  the  performances,  reg 
ularly  to  be  expected,  of  two  of  his  slaves  famous 
for  their  singing,  rather  than  by  his  preaching,  is  a 
point  which  at  least  will  admit  of  dispute.  Perhaps 
the  cause  may  have  been  benefited  somehow  by 
his  labors,  but,  if  it  was,  no  one  seems  to  have 
discovered  it.  His  death  is  mentioned  as  having 
taken  place  in  1797.  Bancroft  Ubrary 

The  Redstone  settlements,  even  at  this  early 
period  in  their  history,  must  have  been  a  remark 
ably  inviting  field  for  missionary  enterprise,  not 
withstanding  the  perils  and  privations,  so  elabo 
rately  and  so  compassionately  made  note  of  by 
historians,  which  attended  the  occupation  of  it; 


3<5o  BLACK-ROBES. 

because  we  discover  that  at  a  very  early  date  other 
missionaries  were  out  on  their  own  account,  to 
share  the  labors  and  to  participate  in  the  profits 
of  the  same  vineyard.  The  fact  that  some  of  these 
may  have  been  pronounced  impostors,  and  the  rest, 
all  of  them,  regarded  as  informally,  one  way  or 
another,  in  the  service,  while  it  may  indicate  a  lack 
of  strict  fidelity  among  them,  somehow,  to  their 
church,  cannot  but  be  accepted  nevertheless  as  an 
evidence  of  their  zeal.  Participating  alike  in  the 
risks  of  the  mission,  and  subject  equally  to  its 
hardships,  they  are  as  justly  entitled  to  mention  as 
any  of  their  regularly  commissioned  and  respecta 
bly  recognized  cotemporaries.  A  certain  Mr.  Barr, 
we  are  told,  gained  admission  into  the  Presbytery 
shortly  after  its  organization.  Where  he  labored 
we  are  not  informed.  His  connection  with  the 
Presbytery  lasted  some  three  or  four  years,  when, 
it  having  become  too  plainly  apparent  that  he  was 
a  hinderance  rather  than  a  help  in  the  cause,  he 
received  his  dismissal.  Thomas  Cooly,  a  "wan 
dering  star"  from  the  Presbytery  of  Charleston, 
South  Carolina,  as  he  claimed,  illuminated  the 
congregations  for  some  time,  but  serious  doubts 
began  to  be  entertained  at  length  of  his  orthodoxy. 
He  was  called  up  to  undergo  an  examination  OP 
"experimental  religion  and  cases  of  conscience,"  in 
which  he  failed  satisfactorily  to  sustain  himself.  It 
was  afterwards  ascertained  that  he  was  out  under 
forged  credentials,  when,  instead  of  being  stripped 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  361 

of  his  robe  of  office,  he  was  merely  transferred,  on 
his  own  petition,  to  the  Presbytery  of  Carlisle. 
Two  Irishmen,  father  and  son,  of  the  name  of  Mor 
rison,  filled  pulpits  here  and  there  for  awhile,  but 
they  proved  vexatious  and  troublesome,  and  it  was 
not  long  until,  according  to  a  peculiar  expression 
of  the  time,  they  were  "  hated  out"  of  the  settle 
ments.  Mr.  Hughey,  an  importation  from  Ireland, 
— Presbytery  of  Deny, — was  also  found  prophesy 
ing  among  the  people.  He  was  regarded  by  the 
Redstone  regulars  as  a  slippery  adventurer,  loose  in 
his  belief,  and  altogether  unworthy  of  confidence. 
Being  accustomed  to  officiate  at  weddings,  Pres 
bytery,  not  liking  the  interference,  took  the  matter 
up,  and,  after  due  deliberation,  resolved  that,  "as 
many  difficulties  arose  from  marriages  celebrated 
by  Mr.  Hughey,"  who  had  no  authority  civil  or 
ecclesiastical  to  perform  the  same,  "such  mar 
riages  be  discountenanced,  and  people  cautioned 
against  them  as  unlawful."  The  Derry  divine,  cut 
off  from  his  most  profitable  source  of  income, 
soon  retired,  and  was  heard  of  no  more  among  the 
churches.  The  next  and  last  prominent  of  the  re 
pudiated  was  "  a  man  of  the  name  of  Birch,"  who 
has  already  been  referred  to  in  connection  with 
the  McMillan  slander  suit.  Mr.  Birch  was  an 
Irishman,  and  a  regularly  ordained  Presbyterian 
minister.  He  was  charged  by  his  brethren  as  being 
deficient  in  "  experimental  knowledge ;"  in  fact,  as 
destitute  of  piety.  It  was  also  suspected  of  him 


362  BLA  CK-R  OBES. 

that  he  was  addicted  to  the  too  free  use  of  liquor. 
On  these  accounts,  when  he  applied  for  admission 
into  the  Presbytery  he  was  rejected.  If  Mr.  Birch 
was  in  the  habit  of  manifesting  in  his  daily  life  any 
thing  like  as  little  of  the  genuine  spirit  of  piety  as 
was  exhibited  when  that  application  was  made  by 
the  ecclesiastical  body  into  which  he  asked  to  be 
received,  then  was  the  judgment  that  excluded  him 
a  most  just  and  righteous  one.  Dishonored  thus 
in  his  own  country,  the  discarded  prophet  next  laid 
his  application  before  the  Presbytery  of  Baltimore, 
where  he  fared  better, — \\\zk  fag-end  of  the  Presby 
terian  Church,  as  it  was  contemptuously  styled 
by  its  border  sister,  admitting  him,  by  a  "  gross 
irregularity,"  into  its  body.  Mr.  Birch  still  con 
tinued  on  duty  in  the  West.  We  do  not  hear  that 
he  accomplished  much  by  his  labors,  but  there  is 
no  evidence  that  the  after-course  of  his  life  justified 
the  scandalous  accusations  of  Mr.  McMillan,  or 
could  be  referred  to  as  vindicating  the  angry 
charges  of  complaint  against  the  Presbytery  that 
adopted  him. 

As  the  scenes  of  his  earliest  labors,  the  Presby 
terian  Black-Robe  had  invariably  fixed  upon  fields 
selected  out  of  country  quarters.  All  the  churches 
to  which  reference  has  been  made  were  situated  in 
the  various  settlements  planted  along  the  water 
courses  and  intermediate  uplands  included  in  what 
are  now  known  as  Washington,  Fayette,  West 
moreland,  and  the  south-of-the-river  strip  of  Alle- 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  363 

ghany  Counties.  The  towns  which  had  sprung  up 
here  and  there,  Greensburg,  Uniontown,  Browns 
ville,  Washington,  Florence,  and  the  like,  were 
entirely  destitute  of  the  means  of  grace,  except  as 
very  rarely,  now  and  then,  in  a  missionary  way,  it 
may  have  been  dispensed  to  them  by  the  pastors 
of  the  neighboring  rural  churches.  From  the  time, 
in  1756,  when  Charles  Beatty,  acting  for  a  few 
months  as  chaplain  among  the  troops  at  Fort  Pitt, 
was  accustomed  to  induce  attendance  at  worship  by 
making  the  distribution  of  whisky  rations  a  part 
of  the  service,  down  for  thirty  years,  there  was  not 
a  priest  of  any  persuasion,  nor  church,  nor  chapel, 
in  Pittsburg.  The  whole  town,  as  a  distinguished 
Virginia  visitor  of  the  time  has  testified,  was  likely 
to  be  damned  without  benefit  of  clergy.  In  1786 
an  interest  seems  to  have  awakened  in  the  spiritual 
welfare  of  the  slovenly  Scotch  and  Irish  inhabitants 
of  the  place,  and  a  congregation  was  organized, 
over  which  the  Rev.  Samuel  Barr  was  settled  by 
Presbytery  as  the  pastor.  Mr.  Barr  had  not  been 
long  in  his  place  before  trouble  arose  between  him 
and  his  people.  It  was  alleged  against  the  latter 
that  they  would  not  hold  themselves  amenable  to 
church  discipline ;  that  they  devolved  upon  their 
pastor  the  responsibility  of  collecting  his  salary ; 
that  the  elders  among  them  indulged  too  much 
in  drinking  and  card-playing  and  being  idle  with 
women ;  that  they  were  untruthful  and  covetous  ; 
and  that  by  circulating  false  reports  they  had 


364  BLACK-ROBES. 

made  it  impossible  to  worship  God  in  a  peace 
able  manner  on  the  Sabbath-day.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  was  retaliated  by  the  elders  that  their 
minister  had  not  done  his  duty  by  his  people ; 
that  he  had  not  visited  their  families,  nor  ex 
amined  them  in  their  Catechism ;  that  he  had 
collected  money  in  Philadelphia  and  New  York 
and  rendered  no  account  of  it  to  the  trustees  or 
anybody  else  in  the  church ;  that  he  never  tried  to 
use  discipline;  and  that  he,  as  well  as  his  officers, 
was  addicted  to  card-playing  and  night-reveling. 
A  trial  of  the  case  being  had  before  Presbytery, 
the  elders  were  sustained,  and  Mr.  Barr,  after  a 
three  years'  term  of  service,  was  relieved  of  his 
charge.  Upon  assuming  his  pastorate, _a  church 
"  of  squared  timbers  and  moderate  dimensions" 
was  erected  for  the  accommodation  of  his  flock. 
This  humble  structure  was  the  original  First  Pres 
byterian  Church  of  Pittsburg.  In  course  of  time 
around  it  were  piled — itself  remaining  undisturbed 
meanwhile — the  brick  walls  of  another  edifice,  con 
sidered  as  very  imposing  in  its  day,  but  which  grew 
to  be  despised,  too,  in  after-years,  and  was  torn 
away  to  give  place  to  the  temple  which,  of  far 
costlier  construction,  has  since  been  reared,  and 
still  stands,  with  its  two  stone  towers  planted  square 
and  broad  upon  its  old  foundations,  the  pride  of 
the  worshipers  that  gather  at  its  gates. 

For  two  years  after  Mr.  Barr's   retirement  the 
congregation  remained  without  a  pastor.     In  1793 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN.  365 

Mr.  Mahon,  a  licentiate  of  the  Carlisle  Presby 
tery,  undertook  to  supply  the  pulpit ;  but,  like  his 
predecessor,  his  "  experimental  acquaintance  with 
religion"  was  not  what  Presbytery,  after  having  put 
him  through  an  examination,  thought  it  ought  to 
be,  and  within  about  a  year  his  connection  with 
the  church  was  dissolved.  Mr.  Semple  followed 
next ;  but,  the  civil  law  proving  more  to  his  taste 
than  the  ecclesiastical,  he  abandoned  the  pulpit 
and  tpok  to  the  bar.  The  congregation,  failing, 
after  so  many  attempts,  to  secure  the  services  of  a 
sound  man,  declined  now  to  experiment  further, 
and  through  a  long  interim  were  shepherdless  al 
together.  In  1800  Mr.  Steele  made  a  venture  at 
the  vacancy.  His  brethren  had  grave  doubts  about 
his  orthodoxy ;  but,  after  two  trial  sermons  preached 
in  their  hearing,— meanwhile,  however,  being  al 
lowed  to  officiate  as  a  "supply," — he  was  finally 
admitted,  speciali  gratia,  into  the  Presbytery.  A 
call  was  then  (1802)  placed  in  his  hands,  and  the 
First  Church  of  Pittsburg  had  a  pastor. 

With  the  occupation  of  Pittsburg  the  "mission 
ary"  labors  of  the  church  may  be  said  to  have 
terminated.  Satan  had  here  intrenched  himself 
behind  his  last  defenses,  and  when  these  were 
stormed  and  taken  his  sovereignty  was  ended. 
Presbyterianism  had  conquered  the  situation.  It 
only  remained  for  her  to  protect  herself  in  the  pos 
session  of  her  properties, — to  call  in  her  "  watch- 
31* 


366  BLACK  ROBES. 

men  to  set  on  her  walls,"  to  lengthen  the  cords  of 
her  tents  and  strengthen  her  stakes ;  and  to  this 
work  were  her  energies  thenceforth  directed.  How 
she  met  the  responsibility,  with  what  success, 
through  what  chances,  and  changes,  and  modifi 
cations  in  her  experience,  her  faith,  and  her  cus 
toms,  and  whether,  consistently,  for  worse,  or  at 
clash,  for  better,  with  the  example  of  the  olden 
time,  her  after-history,  which  falls  not  within  the 
province  of  this  sketch,  and  her  living  self,  as  she 
stands  to-day,  will  best  illustrate. 


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"  I  have  taken  the.  trouble  to  look  out  a 
large  number  of  names,  such  as  seeir.ed 
to  me  good  tests  of  the  compass,  suf- 
ficency  and  accuracy  of  the  biographical 
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shorn  of  its  radiance,  and  the  scarcely  visi 
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From  DR.  OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES. 

"  It  is  a  work  which  I  shall  be  glad  to 
possess,  both  on  account  of  the  fullness 
of  its  matter,  and  because  the  pronuncia 
tion  of  the  names  is  given.  I  have  had 
occasion,  from  the  other  works  of  Dr. 
Thomas,  to  be  convinced  of  his  great  ex 
actness  in  that  respect.  The  work  will  be 
a  valuable  addition  to  the  books  of  refer 
ence  in  our  language." — Front  WILLIAM 
CULLEN  BRYANT. 


"  I  can  speak  in  high  terms  of  the  tho 
roughness  and  accuracy  with  which  the 
work  has  been  prepared.  It  is  a  store 
house  of  valuable  and  trustworthy  infor 
mation.  The  pronunciation  of  the  names, 
which  is  systematically  given,  will  add 
much  to  the  usefulness  of  the  work." — 
From  Prof.  JAMES  HAD  LEY,  Yale  Col 
lege. 

"  I  think  that  the  work  when  completed 
will  supply  a  real  want.  I  was  especially 
pleased  with  the  sensible  and  learned 
preface  of  the  editor,  and  am  persuaded 
that  he  has  chosen  the  true  system  of 
orthography.  From  what  I  know  of  Dr. 
Thomas,  I  feel  sure  that  he  will  give  us  a 
book  that  may  be  depended  on  for  com 
prehensiveness  and  accuracy,  the  two 
great  desidermida,  in  such  an  undertak 
ing." — From  Prof.  JAS.  RUSSELL  LOW 
ELL. 

"  It  is  the  most  valuable  work  of  the 
kind  in  English  that  I  have  seen."-  -From 
GEN.  R.  E.  LEE,  Washington  College. 


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